Her name was Noriko
by KT-chan88
Summary: This is a jaded!Naruto time travel fic who tries to remain blasé against the wrath of Sasuke's vengeful descendents, being sent back in time to a female body, a cranky civilian doctor and a doting Kakashi-papa wannabe. A serious fic. Sorta.
1. Death is Just the beginning

Ahem, I know that most of you would like to see Iruka at Hogwarts updated. Hell,_ I'm_ more interested in seeing that one updated. Somehow my muse would not cooperate, it spat out this fic instead.

And yes, dear readers, another experimental fic.

Disclaimer: The characters belongs to Kishimoto-sensei, the story line belongs to me. Also any OC you see belongs to me.

Warning: **Slight gore**. Not for the faint hearted. Do not flame me for this. You have been warned!

**Her name was Noriko**

_not seeing_

_the room is white_

_until that red apple_

Anita Virgil

Her name is Noriko. She is six years old and wishes for her life to end.

His name is Naruto. He is fifty, maybe sixty years old and is facing death in the form of Uchiha Matsuri, Sasuke's daughter by... someone.

She was a demon vessel with a pretty name.

He was a demon vessel named after a hero.

The years had not been kind to them, Naruto had thrived despite all odds, had persevered on a dream. He had moved on beyond his comrade's memories, lived past villagers who once shunned his money and his presence. Noriko was similarly pressured, yet, life can be even more cruel to a girl, especially beautiful little girls.

On a night of full moon, Naruto faced the angry, swirling Sharingan eye with detachment. Revenge ran deep in the family, it would seem. He was surprised it took this long for her to find him, actually. Then again, he looked nothing like the last time rookie nine took a group picture together, when Iruka-sensei was alive, when the sky shone blue, when Kakashi still arrives late for everything.

Shining beautifully under the bright moon, Noriko takes off her shoes; she had put on her prettiest dress. Had washed and scrubbed until her skin felt raw. The doctors had looked at her and said nothing was wrong. Had flashed a penlight… down there and proclaim her a naughty, lying girl. With the comfortable shoes set aside, she clapped her hands three times and prayed.

Naruto laughed at Matsuri. He couldn't help it. Her words, her expressions, by Gods, her very snarl, all identical to Sasuke-baka. He laughed and laughed, clutching his side with one good hand, the stub of the other arm scrabbling against a large rock to remain standing. Matsuri screamed again, spouting more revenge garbage in _that_ _exact_ _same way_ as Sasuke-teme. He lost his balanced then, wobbling off his crutch to roll about the gravelled floor.

Noriko breathed in once, took one step forward, closed her eyes and her body tipped forward.

Naruto drew another breath in, inhaling the burnt ozone smell of lightning and smiled to himself.

Underneath their seal, the Kyuubi howled.

xxxxxx

Sarutobi chewed his pipe thoughtfully, eyes roving through the throng of paperwork spilled over his table. He stamped one of them and reached for another. It was a quiet evening, with only the swish of papers being shuffled about as his companion. Oh, and the hidden Anbu lurking in the ceilings. Work went on steadily, even as his candle burned low, and the moon grows higher. And then…

And then it all went to hell.

The sudden surge of chakra was his first clue. The earth rumbled threateningly, like a powerful doton jutsu, or an earthquake that rattled the frames of the hokages in his office. A dirty orange glow bloomed like sunlight somewhere north of the village. The Anbu had leaped down from their perch to surround the hokage, all the while staring fearfully at the light. They all recognize it. It was Kyuubi's aura.

Sarutobi shook himself from the trance of the orange light and reached hurriedly for his scrying crystal. He forced himself to look into the transparent orb and focused to the area north of the village. For a few worrying minutes he saw nothing but the dirty glow and a scramble of panicked shinobi scouting out the area. Then, on the very edge of a steep, jagged cliff, he saw a small pair of shoes placed side-by-side to each other.

For a moment, his heart stopped.

In his mind's eye, he saw the pale face of a stricken child blinked up at him.

"…_please, help me?"_

_Sarutobi had sighed and gave the girl a stern glare, "Noriko-kun, you know the villagers don't like it when you play pranks on them,"_

_The small lips had wobbled, but the old hokage was just too busy to bother with one naughty child, the girl had caused his paperwork to triple over her pranks! It was not the first time the child came to seek refuge in his office once a prank had gone off spectacularly, Sarutobi knew the motives behind her attitude, but she had chosen a bad time to come crying. A group of chuunin had gone missing without explanation just a week ago and the mounting tension from the Uchiha and Danzo's claims had not helped any._

"_Listen, Noriko, you should think about your actions more thoroughly. Have you ever thought anything through? If you get into trouble, perhaps it is what you deserve,"_

_The blue eyes had watered, and the girl ran out sobbing quietly, Sarutobi had been sorry for being so harsh. But then, a worrying report from Itachi just came in, and the problem was set aside…_

And now, all that was left of the cheerful little girl was a pair of shoes and the menacing aura of the Kyuubi. Hurriedly by passing the shoes, Sarutobi quickly skimmed down the hill to look for, he swallowed, to look for the remains of Yondaime's legacy. Half expecting to see a giant orange fox with nine tails, he was both horrified and secretly relieved to see a broken body washed up against a pair of boulders. Quickly, he snapped out the directions to send Anbu Hound and Anbu Cat to retrieve the Noriko. Kakashi was the best shinobi at hand, and Yamato was the best candidate for backup with his Mokuton ability.

As the two black ops leapt into the centre of the aura, Sarutobi scanned the body as best as he could with just a scrying crystal. Part of her skull seemed to have caved in, her lips were blue from blood loss and cold, numerous broken bones protruded from her shattered arm. An instinctive move to protect her head perhaps?

Both Anbu arrived at the scene quickly. Sarutobi watched as Kakashi reached for the body, and was thrown back by a sudden surge of chakra. The old hokage could only watched in horror as the broken body attempted to move itself; one of the eyeballs had actually popped out of her smashed skull to dangle haphazardly from her face. The crippled arms hung uselessly as Noriko tried to get up. The dirty orange aura grew stronger, her bones jerked and rippled, diving beneath the skin even as the caustic chakra peeled them off.

Yamato employed his blood limit, sending a careful probing wood tendril towards the girl. The wood remained intact, feeling braver, he send more wood towards the girl, attempting to enfold her within its wooden embrace. The moment the wood touched her skin, Noriko suddenly reacted. She screamed and clawed the makeshift prison, broken arms obviously healed to workable conditions. Caustic chakra flared, burning the rocks around her, scorching the waters. Both Kakashi and Yamato had to back away quickly or risk being melted into a puddle of blood and bones.

The wooden cage warped and twisted from the heat, Kakashi had his sword out, Yamato placed his hand together readying his chakra. They're preparing for the worst. Sarutobi only wished it hadn't come to this. The first of the wooden poles cracked, Noriko's nails had elongated into claws and the nerves of her throat bulged under her flattened head and drooping eye, giving her a terrible appearance. Blood and saliva dribbled from her opened lips as she grinned dementedly, making harsh wheezing noises.

She was… laughing, Sarutobi finally realized, laughing at them.

Then she suddenly disappeared. It was only Kakashi's reflexes that saved his neck from being swiped off. The Copy Nin ducked and took off, keeping a careful distance from the demented creature. Froth was bubbling from her mouth now, the skin under her smouldering clothes bright red with burns. Yamato attempted to catch the Kyuubi again, but one swipe of the clawed hands sent chunks of wood flying. The Kyuubi, it had to be the Kyuubi, was blindingly fast with chakra aided moves, it was also boiling the fragile body beyond its limit, but the fox did not seemed to care. It crashed through Yamato's defences recklessly, sent balls of acid fire at Kakashi and left a burning trail of melting rocks and steam behind it.

The cat and mouse game was dangerously against the Anbu's favour, they had orders to try and capture Noriko alive, but the Kyuubi had no such reservations. It soon managed to knock Yamato into a boulder and was now rounding in on Kakashi. Sarutobi had sent more ninja as backup, but they had orders to observe first before going in. One of the more eager jounin already had his gut ripped open by the Kyuubi when he tried to launch a surprise attack at the beast.

Kakashi tensed as the creature before him stretched and leaned into a pounce mode, with his Sharingan out, he could just about stay ahead of the creature. He could not afford to fail in capturing Noriko. It was the only chance for him to save the girl. Yondaime's Legacy, Minato-sensei's daughter, will die if he fails. The surrounding ninja were already preparing to launch an area affect attack the moment he falters. They could not risk having the Kyuubi escape and attacking the village.

It was with this mindset that Kakashi prepares himself to receive an attack from the beast. He would be the bait for Yamato's trap, Mokuton wood hid itself underneath regular trees that Kakashi appeared to lean heavily against. The moment Noriko attack, Kakashi will hold her down letting Yamato cover them both in thick wood. He would most probably die from the flare of caustic chakra the Kyuubi emit, but that is fine with him. It is the least he could do for sensei's daughter.

The Kyuubi charged, Kakashi tensed, the creature leapt midway and suddenly yelped. It rolled pass Kakashi's location and began pawing on its own head. Kakashi watched in mild horror and fascination as it started to bang its own head against the ground, scrabbling pitifully against the forest floor. Wood shot out from Yamato's hiding place to surround the howling creature, subduing its chakra and hopefully, the creature as well.

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I'm experimenting with POVs as well as a different kind of twist for the standard Naruto goes back to time spin. Time and again we see a world weary Naruto who tries to change the world for good or saw Daddy yondaime or degenerated into something like a crackfic. Well, I'm trying for a new type of Naruto here.

Please let us welcome, Jaded!Naruto.

Smattering of polite claps.

Jaded!Naruto: …hi

Naruto: Uwaaah! Who is that, dattebayo!

Katy: Please, tell us, what do you think of Uchiha Sasuke?

Jaded!Naruto: …who?

Naruto: He's my best friend! And I'm going to bring him back from the path of a snake pervert!

Jaded!Naruto: ... sorry, no clue

Katy: Uh, that guy with the sharingan?

Jaded!Naruto: Ah, *Paused* Was he a twin? I'm sure he's a twin, I remember seeing a pair of those brats trying to take over Konoha, once.

Katy: No, there's only one. Left Konoha to kill evil brother Sasuke?

Jaded!Naruto: Oh, that one! Yeah, She has really small boobs. Or was it that runt, with the droopy eye? Nah, can't remember…

Naruto: …

Katy: … moving on! What would you do if you are given a chance to start over?

Naruto: I will save my precious persons. I will save Haku, Zabuza, Sasuke, Hinata, Neji Gaara and protect Grandpa hokage!

Jaded!Naruto: …I will kill that pain in the butt duck ass person.

Naruto gasped in horror. Katy gasped with him.

Katy: Uh, why?

Jaded!Naruto: Do you know how many of those Sharingan people running around swearing vengeance left and right? How many people are dead because of the stupid swirly eye thing? It wasn't so bad when there was one, or two. But then that stupid Kabuto just had to fertilize a whole town of females with the Sharingan sperm…

Katy and Naruto imagines Sharingan eyed sperm and shuddered, "Scary…"

And so ends the brief and rather stupid interview with Jaded!Naruto.

TBC


	2. I am Noriko?

So the saga continuous…

Naruto woke up to pain in his head. He wondered if he overdid it with the alcohol again. It used to be difficult to get drunk, due to Kyuubi's chakra circulating in his system, but not even the Fox could deal with the natural decay of his body, sped up by constant poisons. Granted, he would have died several times over if it weren't for the evil furball in his belly, but that was neither here nor there. His last memories were of angry Uchiha eyes glaring at him. Which meant the last Uchiha, that bratty girl Mushima, must have finally nailed his old hide after twenty years of brooding, or was it twelve? Meh, he couldn't be bothered to keep track of all their revenge fits.

Well, nearly nail his hide at any rate. He was still alive, apparently. A lot hurt and had trouble moving, but not quite door nail level yet. Or, thought Naruto grimly as he tried the strength of the band strapping him down, Muruko had developed the taste of torturing hapless prisoners as her hobby. He wouldn't put anything past a crazy Uchiha. As he wriggled under the confines of the straps, Naruto busied himself taking in the details of his new prison. The light was a fluorescent yellow, throwing everything into shadows. Here and there he caught sight of seals written on walls. Huh, looks like Mukimu-chan really didn't want him to escape. Just his luck.

He should be anxious, he supposed. But it was a little difficult to feel much then, everything was a just a touch hazy and fuzzy to his blunted senses. He did, however, notice the sound of doors opening. It stabbed into his skull, alerting him to another person's presence. In the vague haze of pain, Naruto wondered how best to annoy this latest Uchiha. She'd probably try something really boring and diabolical. Perhaps using the Sharingan, they're always using the Sharingan for something.

Footsteps approached his bed; the tread was light, ninja-like, and non-female. Who would appear? He wondered. A crazy scientist dude? A megalomaniac with dreams of immortality? Another generation of Uchiha out to torment him? Well, Naruto mused, the last one was not quite out of the realm of possibility, Mariko could have gotten bored and procreated or something and popped out an Uchiha baby or two just to annoy him.

The footsteps stopped somewhere to his right. Naruto tried to turn his head to see the person when a sharp blade of pain stopped him. Wincing in pain, he contemplated the possibility of having been bashed repeatedly on the head by some vengeful Uchiha. It's an entirely possible scenario.

"You shouldn't move too much,"

Naruto agreed.

"You've suffered terrible trauma to the head, fortunately, your neck was not broken, th-the Kyuubi was able to fix most things, though you shouldn't be so careless with your life,"

Naruto wondered at the stutter. The voice was kind, raspy, old-ish, perhaps a scientist dude working for a crazy megalomaniac? He carefully cracked open an eye. When his brain did not dribble out of his ears, he tried focusing from that lone eye. The other one had been glued shut by something. Although when the image came into focus, he had to blink and gave himself another serious headache when he tried to shake the confusion out of his head.

"Hush," the Sandaime's hand hovered near his face, "You shouldn't move,"

Having the dead Sandaime talking to him created a rather odd sensation in his stomach. It was not unpleasant, though, but not very welcome either. Is this how Momoko going to play it? Torment him with dead people from his past? Well, he'll just have to play along a bit; maybe he could even piss her off by not giving her the satisfaction of losing his mind over this.

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Sarutobi watched with worried eyes at the silent girl. Her jaw was wrapped up tightly in bandages, half the face swath in white cloth drawing an eerie parallel with Danzo. None of her yellow hair peeked out of the bandages; not that she had any left. All of it had been burnt off by the caustic demon chakra. Her arms and legs her tightly bound to keep her from moving, sutras and seals written to keep her demonic prisoner in and to stop her from escaping. The hokage had gone to the dungeon-turn-hospital room against the advices of his… advisors. But, he felt he owed it to Noriko to see her, and to find out if any remnants of his successor's daughter's mind still remained.

So far, the child had only stared solemnly at him. Not uttering a word. Not a twinge of chakra is felt beyond that of pain and discomfort. The sutras had been designed to read her chakra level even as others kept her in place.

"Can you hear me?"

The eye blinked.

"Is that a yes?"

The eye blinked again.

"Do you know what happened?"

No movement.

"Do you know who I am?"

Blink. That was… unexpected. Unexpected but good, it had to be good. At least Noriko still had some recognition. Sarutobi smiled at the bound girl, "It will be alright, there had been a terrible accident, but you are alive," his hand hovered near her face, the blue eye tracked it, he didn't move it out of her sight, "Sleep now, dear, it would be fine,"

Blue eyes blinked, but did not shut as it tracked the hokage's movements. It remained in the direction of where he had gone for a long time before shutting, letting its host sleep.

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The next time Sarutobi visited, it was three weeks later. The blonde had not been moved from her bindings for security reasons, but she could now talk. One of the more dour and serious physician had checked up on her and thought nothing of touching her throat and putting his gloved fingers past fanged teeth to prod her tongue. Minami-sensei became an instant celebrity upon exiting the sealed dungeon alive and fingers intact. Most had bet that he would lose his fingers at least during that particular routine check.

Sandaime was ashamed to say that he was similarly surprised. Minami had always been more of a scientist then a doctor, a man in his own little world of facts and figures.

"I hope you know you will be billed for this," was Minami's first comment to Sandaime after looking at Noriko, "I have many important experiments to look after, not an intern with time in his hands to go about doing routine checks."

Sandaime, who had opened his mouth to reprimand the man, took a closer look at the scowling genius. There was irritation there, yes, but it is the typical genius-against-the-normal world type of unhappiness. Kakashi and Minato had displayed signs of it in their youth. Having been cooped up in his own laboratory among beakers and Bunsen burners, Minami, age 35, had never lost it. The hokage thought for a moment.

"You will be compensated of course, thank you for your assistance,"

Minami's grunt told Sarutobi where he could shove his thanks. The bill came the day after; it was a regularly priced bill for a regular check up. One that doctors often wrote for their patients. Sarutobi thought better of the grumpy scientist for it.

Right now he was standing inside the door of the cell turn hospital room. Noriko was humming to herself. She didn't stop as he approached her. Her left eye was still under bandages, a fresh one. The ones on her arms, legs and torso looked old. Minami couldn't remove it due to the straps keeping her down. The humming had stopped. One blue eye stared steadily at him, it was vertically cut with an orange slit, he hadn't notice it in his first visit, but her eyes were not fully open then.

"Whatcha 'doin here?"

Sarutobi smiled reflexively, "Ah, I'm here to check on you, are you feeling better?"

The blue eye turned inward, "I guess, my head don't hurt, and I can't feel anything downwards,"

"I see," he paused to contemplate her words, the straps and sutras had numbed her body for better restraint and to keep her from being in pain, "You were singing just now," it was not a question

"It's boring here," the small mouth huffed into a pout, "Can I go out soon?"

"Perhaps," his hand hovered near her bandaged cheek, "You've been badly injured,"

"Oh," she contemplate the ceiling, "I like Minami-sensei,"

"Oh?" Now that was a surprise, "was he nice?"

"Naw, he's totally awful," the mouth grinned, revealing a gap in front, "Minami-sensei totally chewed off the Anbu for bein' fussy and is mad at me for making him walk all those stairs," she nodded sagely to herself, "he has warm hands,"

"I… see," he didn't really, "Well, we'll get Minami-sensei to check on you again, and if you're well enough, we'll see about getting those bandages off,"

The blue eye curved, "Thanks, Old Man!"

"Well," he was a bit overwhelmed by her cheerfulness, "I'll see you soon then,"

"Bye!" she chirped.

Feeling strangely ill at ease, Sarutobi slipped out of the room.

Once in his office, he issued an order to strengthen the Sutras surrounding the room, and to take off the sealed straps keeping Noriko bed ridden. Cat and Dog will be sent to keep watch, Cat for the demon repellent wood technique and Dog for his amazing speed and connection to the Container's father. Sarutobi had seen how the boy would rather die than kill Noriko several times over in the fight at the foot of the cliff.

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Kakashi watch the girl covertly. She was alone in the room; a spy seal had been grafted into one of the corners of the cell and connected to a small mirror for surveillance purposes. As he watched, Noriko wriggle her toes and fingers as commanded by the now famous Minami-sensei. The doctor wrote some things into his writing pad and barked out another order which Noriko complied cheerfully.

It had been several weeks since The Incident, which would always be capitalized in Kakashi's mind. He'd never paid close attention to sensei's daughter before, always aware of her peripherically, of course, but never knew much about her. It was too painful to see that fluffy blonde hair, those blue, blue eyes on another person's face. Now, he regretted not being closer to her, perhaps he could have prevented-

He sighed behind the mask. So many what-if.

Noriko laughed, and he looked up to see the little girl trying to balance herself on one good leg. The left eye is kept behind a black patch, and the bandages on her face had been stripped off to reveal thick whisker marks. If she were ever to go out in public, the mark of the kitsune is even stronger now, his fingers clenched as images of what could happen to her whipped through his mind. He had to do something about this. He is still a Head of a clan, a clan of one person perhaps, but a Clan Head nevertheless. Surely the Hatake name still means something…

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Naruto found out a few things during his time strapped to the bed. Mitsushi had really poor imagination. There were long bouts of nothingness in between visits from the mean doctor and the Sandaime. Seriously, did she really think that she could actually break him with boredom? Perhaps it would have happened when he was still in his teen years or even in his twenties, but Naruto had not lived past his thirtieth year without learning patience.

Oh, he knew about the Mangekyo being able to compress three days into one second. He'd counted the days the best he could. Approximately thirty days have passed, maybe, which meant in the first ten seconds, she had not thought beyond terrible injuries, resurrection of a certain Old Man and some random mean civilian.

Clearly the Uchiha need to work on their imagination. It was a thought he grew to regret. The Uchiha's diabolical imagination was finally revealed after Minami-sensei, the meanly unprejudiced bastard, bullied the Anbu into release the bindings on his body. Trying to walk on half healed broken legs sucked, but nothing on walking with wooden prosthetics so he managed. As Naruto went through the regular motions of moving under Minami-sensei's begrudging eyes, other types of bodily functions made itself known to his previously numbed down body.

He really, really had to pee.

His reasonable and polite request to use the bathroom was rewarded by the production of a potty in a corner. "I assumed you are housebroken?" Minami-sensei had sneered, 'you bothersome spawn of the devil' was implied. Naruto was convinced the man was somehow related to the Nara and the Yamanaka, both at the same time! That was a classic Ino sneer on a Nara attitude.

"Er, sure," So he had to pee in a potty, well he'd done worse. Upon reaching the pot, after a bout of unsteady amble, Naruto lowered his trousers. A motion as old as time itself was made in half automation. Only, there was nothing to grasp. Naruto blinked once in confusion, glanced down in dread and proceeded to shriek in sheer horror.

"What is it now?" Minami-sensei demanded.

"aa… abbrr… aa…" Naruto blubbered. The bottom of his pants became wet with pee. Only, it turns out he was no longer a _he_. So, this is Marimo's diabolical plan, he felt rather light headed, where his dick had been, a hairless empty space remained.

_Dickless…_

Sai's voice teased his mind. Somewhere, he heard muffled curses and scuffling noises. He couldn't bring himself to care. His dick is gone.

As in, disappeared.

As in, not there anymore.

The world blacked out sympathetically.

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Kakashi didn't know what happened, at first, Noriko seemed abnormally cheerful for someone who had apparently committed suicide, kept bedridden for two months and suffered severe muscular atrophy from numerous chakra numbing jutsu. Then she had screamed, and Kakashi's reaction had been instinctive. Tearing through the two dividing doors that separated the observation room with the cell, he took in the scene with one glance. Noriko, with her pants down and screaming. The doctor stood at one side with an annoyed look on his face. Kakashi grabbed the man by the collar.

"What the hell did you do to her?" He snarled.

"I- what-_ put me down at once_!"

There was a thud behind him. Kakashi turned just a bit to see what was going on behind him. The man in his hand is a civilian and thus posts no immediate threat, though he is curious how the man could remain sane under the amount of killing intent Kakashi was leaking. Noriko had fallen on her face, her bare buttocks exposed to the world. Anxious and very close to panicking, Kakashi dropped the civilian and rushed over to her side. There were no immediate injury apparent, no sign of blood or cuts. He gently turned her onto her back, nose wrinkling at the stench of urine, and removed the wet garment from her. There were no signs of injuries to her front beyond what had been inflicted on her person from before.

Perhaps the injury was internal?

Swallowing, Kakashi picked up the small body, Noriko felt very small in his arms. He had not touched her before, not even during the fight. That had been a battle of jutsu and demonic chakra. There, he had not been able to get within three feet of her before without the material of his mask crackling from the heat.

"Here, put her here," the snooty voice of the bad tempered doctor ordered. Kakashi was tempted to disobey, but there was no reasonable excuse for him to do so. That Minami character _is_ the hokage appointed doctor for Noriko after all. Gently, Kakashi eased the small body onto the clean sheets.

As Kakashi watched, Dr. Minami's hands moved quickly and efficiently to check the small body for abnormalities and reasons for her fainting fit. He flashed a light into her exposed eye, listened to her heart beat, took her pulse and finally looked at Kakashi.

"There's nothing wrong with her,"

Wordless with anger, Kakashi waved a shaky hand over Noriko's badly damage, heavily bandaged body. The doctor had the gall to actually roll his eyes at him. "I was referring to the blackout, nothing immediately explains the scream or the faint,"

Kakashi radiates indigence. Minami merely snorts and actually made shooing motions at him. Really, who tries to 'shoo' away an Anbu? Kakashi crossed his arms, this time projecting stubbornness. Minami clicked his tongue, "Fine, have it your way, go stand guard over that corner,"

Kakashi seriously contemplates how much trouble he'd get into for slitting the man's throat when the person in question actually turned his back on a deadly Anbu and showed his backside by bending over to rummage in his doctor's bag. Kakashi could feel his jaw dropped open at the sheer gall of this- this _civilian_. Unwilling to obey, but not wishing to get in the way; Kakashi compromised by moving to the other side of Noriko's bed. A thin blanket covered her from waist down. Which reminds him, Noriko would need fresh clothes soon, the rags on her person could no longer be considered proper clothing.

The Seal Masters had not bothered to remove her clothes before sealing her into the binding straps. The priority had been the security of the village, not the comfort or safety of the Container. Some of the more grimy cloth had dried yellow puss on them, indicating a low grade infection at least.

Minami straightened from his crouched position, smelling salts in hand. After three passes under her nose, Noriko flinched and blinked her eye. Blue slitted eye focussed on him. Despite his concern for her health, Kakashi flexed his fingers near his thigh where the most accessible weapons lay. He is a shinobi first and foremost after all.

The eye blinked once, "Hello,"

Mindful of his Anbu persona, Kakashi nodded back solemnly.

"Am I in trouble?"

Kakashi hesitated, now how to answer that?

"You screamed and urinated on your pants," a dry no-nonsense voice interjected. A hospital gown flew over and nearly smacked Kakashi in the face, it was cut at the waist and sleeves so it was child size. "Go change into that,"

Noriko made a face but gamely obeyed, "Unn," she sat up carefully, wincing when her weight shifted at certain places. Kakashi held her by her good elbow and plumped the pillows behind her so that her seat was secure. "Thanks, Anbu-san!" she chirped, and proceeded to wriggle out of her raggedy shirt, unmindful of the two male adults in the room.

Kakashi stared, not a sick perverted Lolita induced stare thank you very much, but a what-the-feck is going on stare. He had gathered from the Sandaime himself, that Noriko may have well been raped or at the very least, molested by some bastard-who-is-going-to-die-a-painful-death that had finally pushed her over the edge to suicide. As he watch Noriko unabashedly sniffed her armpits and gagged, Kakashi wondered if they should drop that line of investigation. Or, had the memory been so deeply buried in denial that she was able to function despite of it?

No matter, hurt or not, damaged or not. Kakashi had made his decision. By this time next week, Hatake Kakashi, age 21 will approach the hokage and surrender his mask as full time Anbu and claim adoption rights for one Uzumaki Noriko.

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It would be nice to have reviews, of course, but I write these stories to test my powers of writing. So, if there's no reviews, that says something about my ability to write, ne?


	3. Sakura

Sarutobi would be lying to himself if he said he hadn't expected something like this. He had anticipated Anbu Dog's presence in his office ever since the Mad Dog of Konoha had held himself back from striking a killing blow at Noriko. The Anbu that is famous for his ruthlessness against adversaries was now standing before him, mask in hand. It was the Anbu way of asking for retirement from their bloody career.

Kakashi stood tall and rigid, body defensive and vulnerable at once without the mask. He did not expect the request to be granted, but he's here to make a case come hell or high water.

"How long have you been in Anbu?" Sandaime lit his pipe.

"… Two years and ten months, Hokage-sama," they both knew the information. Two years marks the limit of how most ninja could stomach the life of an Anbu. Kakashi's request to leave Anbu is well within reason. His other demand however…

"I see,"

Kakashi kept his silence.

"Why do you wish for the child to be your ward?"

He had been prepared for this question, "The clan of Hatake owes the survival of their line to her parents. We wish to ensure this debt is repaid,"

Sarutobi lit his pipe and watch the Anbu kept very still, "mmm,"

He puffed slowly, stamped a few documents. The secretary came and went, not bothering to even glance up at the silent shadow before the Hokage's table.

"You will submit yourself immediately for mental evaluation. You will schedule for yourself, bi-weekly evaluation therapy session with the Yamanaka clan until I deemed proper,"

So, the hokage thinks he's crazy, well, no matter, he will attend however many sessions of therapy as they saw fit. He will let nothing stand in the way of proper care for his sensei's daughter. "Understood,"

"Hire a genin team to clean out the Hatake compound, a jounin's bachelor pad is no place for a little girl,"

"Yes, sir,"

"Noriko will check in with Dr. Minami every week, her welfare is of utmost importance,"

"Understood, sir,"

"Good," Sarutobi blew a smoke ring, "Now, dismiss,"

Kakashi leapt out of the window, mind already listing down all the things he needed to do. The next two weeks were busy ones for Kakashi, he had chosen a time lull between missions to approach the hokage and thus have plenty of time to plan. Two teams of genin were hired to sweep, dust, mop, mow and brush the neglect away. Kakashi had busied himself choosing what to keep and what to throw from the house. He never realised how much junk he had until now.

Also, there is the question of where to keep his Icha Icha…

It wasn't until the genin had left and Kakashi was busy pondering over cuts of meat at the market when it suddenly occur to him that he hadn't actually ask Noriko if she wanted to move in with him. His overly active genius imagination, set free from its Anbu prison, supplied a variety of scenes where Noriko refuses his invitation and cried, sneered, screamed and displayed pretty much every kind of negative and/or hostile feelings towards Kakashi. Shoulders slumping from the mental assault, he pondered on the best ways of breaking the news when a solution presented itself almost immediately.

A pair of old ladies discussing general politics of the village made a random observation that floated immediately to his attention.

"…Hokage-sama is kind!"

Hokage-sama, of course! Hokage-sama! Noriko already had contact with the Hokage. An introduction by the hokage will serve to let Noriko-chan trust him best! With this in mind, Kakashi abandoned the market place and hot footed towards the Hokage Tower.

000000

Iruka is sixteen years old and had never met the Container in his lifetime. He had heard about it, her, of course, and seen her from afar, but who hadn't? As a teacher's aide, it was his job to supervise detentions, make copies of worksheets, notes and clean up the field after kunai practice. In short, he was something like a paid servant to regular teachers. As a teacher's aide, he was also in charge of tutoring and is responsible for bringing weaker students up to par. He didn't really mind the job, it was as close to teaching as he gets at the moment.

He hadn't minded that is, until he was informed that the Kyuubi container had been slotted into his class.

The jounin Hatake Kakashi was suppose to bring the six year old into his class. Uzumaki Noriko had lost quite a few months worth of classes and under the insistence of her new guardian, had signed up for remedial classes. Iruka frowned, far be it for him to criticize, but just what kind of suspicious parental figure would signed their child up for remedial classes when she had already enrolled two years earlier than most students?

A knock at the door interrupted his musings. Iruka straightened at his tiny desk and tried to look serious and teacher like, "Come in,"

And thus Iruka received his first actual glimpse of one of Konoha's most famous legends. Hatake Kakashi himself.

The first thing one would notice about the Copy nin would be the quirky tilted hitae-ate. Although the suspicious looking mask fought for attention too. Then there was his attitude, the sheepish body language and haunch way of standing screamed harmless layabout. Topping it all was a crazy shock of white hair that seemed perpetually windblown.

Trying to hide behind the Copy nin's knees was a small figure, a child. A henohenomoheji scarf covered her nose and face. She had a bandana with a hemehemekutsuji (female version of the henohenomoheji) over her left eye in a quirky tilt just like the copy-nin, she peeked out anxiously from behind his knee. A white _teruteruboze_ clutched tightly in her fist. It was all Iruka could do to stop himself from going 'aww' over the cuteness of it.

Iruka could feel the aww factor kicking in even as he tried to remain professional. He rocked back on his feet and coughed into his fist. "Ah, Hatake-san…"

"Kakashi,"

"Eh?"

"Please," the visible eye inverted cheerfully, "call me Kakashi," he patted the blonde and red fuzz on Noriko's head, "This is Nori-chan,"

'Nori-chan' peeked out from Hatake's hand and inverted _her_ eye at Iruka.

Aww…

Aww!

_Aww!_

Cough.

"Um, please to meet you… Kakashi-san, and Nori-chan too, of course," he bent closer to the child and was please to see a blush of pleasure at being addressed by an 'adult'.

Thus was the first meeting of many meetings between three of Konoha's arguably most important people in the future.

000000

Iruka-sensei looked awfully young. Naruto had always remembered him as being a little larger than life. Capable of being extremely angry, and extremely nice in parts. The gawky teen before him didn't look much like the broad shouldered man in Naruto's memory. Generally Naruto tried to avoid teenagers while growing up, they tend to travel in packs and are prone to egging each other into doing stupid things. Like throwing rocks at the Jinchuuriki. Like challenging to see who would dare graffiti the Jinchuuriki's apartment. Like who had the balls to break into the Jinchuuriki's 'den' for a souvenir.

Stuffs like that.

So Naruto hid behind Kakashi's leg and curved his eyes as cutely as possible, he'd practice for ages before the mirror for two days in preparation for this meeting. The scarf and bandana had been inspired, now people would think Noriko was actually trying to imitate Kakashi and not in fact, trying to hide the terribly suspicious whisker marks instead. Also, the hemehemekutsuji was truly a brilliant inspiration. He thanked the Hinata in his memory for that lovely afternoon making _teruterubozu_ with Tea Country orphans on one of those extended missions. He could hardly remember what the mission was about even. But the shining faces of children, the scent of plum blossoms and the flutter of white cloth with faces dancing in the wind would forever linger in his mind. It was truly a special time.

Kakashi had been unusually affectionate. So much that Naruto felt a little uncomfortable about taking advantage of it. That is, he felt uncomfortable about it until he reminded himself sternly that this is still Mororo's dream world and any time this dream Kakashi would probably stab him or molest him or something and Teenager Iruka would probably be egged on by Teenager Miz-

Naruto suddenly crouched, both hands cradling his stomach where a stab of pain erupted. And then Kakashi was there, patting his- Noriko's stomach carefully, trying to check for abnormalities with his chakra. Iruka hovered fretfully and fearfully in the background. Considering what was contained behind the seal of his stomach, both men were brave indeed to stay in the same room with the _Kyuubi_ container.

"I'm fine, Kakashi-san," Naruto replied in his best cheerful voice, "I think I had too much cake,"

"Maa," Kakashi, the legendary Copy nin was suddenly all knees and elbows, "Maa, are you sure? We could see Minami…"

Naruto curved Noriko's eye, "It's okay now, um, I think I need to go," he lowered his voice, "pee pee,"

Kakashi actually leapt up at the 'mission', "Sensei!" he snapped, "We need the toilet, now!"

To his credit, Iruka remained faintly bemused by Kakashi's high handed behaviour. With an air of a professional host dealing with unruly customers, he gracefully directed the pair.

"Ah, of course, this way please,"

000000

After a brief toilet trip, where Kakashi hovered anxiously outside the ladies section, garnering suspicious looks from passing kunoichi, Naruto reassessed his situation. While Iruka drone on about some theory of weapons usage, Naruto doodled on Noriko's notepad, thinking deeply. Somewhere, a building collapsed without any reason. Thus far, he had tried to keep his cool, trying his best not to panic in the face of the many trials thrown by Mikomi. Thus far, there was the horrible injury factor, followed by revived third hokage, mean doctor, nice Kakashi, teenage Iruka and a suspicious reaction to the Traitor-with-that-huge-shuriken-thing. It had been more than six months now, he was sure of it, reasonably sure anyway. Whatever.

That time limit had gone beyond what most normal people could do with normal people chakra. Unless Muchiro had a tailed beast powering her fruity eye hypnosis thing, this had gone far beyond what even the craziest megalomaniac would do. And he wasn't even badly treated either! Of course, it could be a ploy to lure Naruto into a false sense of security before springing a deadly trap of dead zombies blaming Naruto for all their deaths. Even if it is, things aren't so great that he'd actually suffer any kind of permanent trauma over the loss of it.

As each week passes, the nagging thought hidden in the back of his head grew louder and more annoying. What if, this is real? What if, he had gone back in time? What if, he had plunged head first into a strange, way beyond human explanation plane of existence which would eventually be revealed at a most critical moment but not anytime sooner?

These things bound to happen. Actually, they happened so often around him that it never became quite that strange anymore. He'd rescued princesses, battled demons, destroyed flying palaces, mastered toad taijutsu techniques, suck ramen through his nose and had a nine tailed demon sealed into his stomach.

The bell rang for a break and Naruto went out automatically with the other kids. He set about looking for a quiet place to sit where others won't bother him about his mask. Naruto now had some insight on how Kakashi must have felt when Team 7, and pretty much every other person in the Five Countries, had bothered him about his mask. So, he tucked Noriko's small body behind some leafy bushes and was just about to snap the chopsticks apart when soft sobs carried through his security blanket. Not wanting to catch whoever it was' attention, Naruto scoot away carefully, throwing a last look to check the identity of the crier when he suddenly stopped.

There, grubby and dirty under an overhang of bushes was a matted crop of pink hair. Naruto paused in his escape attempt.

/

_It was Haruno Sakura who finally killed Uchiha Sasuke, the traitor of Konoha. In the epic battle that involved many summons, senjutsu power and sheer desperate determination, Haruto Sakura landed the killing blow that damaged the Sharingan welder beyond repair. He had been trying to lure her to his side. She had faltered, or appeared to falter, and finally gotten close enough to punch the freak in the neck with a chakra powered fist._

_She had been entirely professional after the blow, directing her slugs to take the head apart, crushing the famed eyes rendering them useless to scavengers. She then broke down in Naruto's office, begging to leave the Leaf Village. The reason Sasuke believed her to be on his side was because he thought she was still in love with him. He was right, only, Sakura loved the village more. Killing a person one had harboured such great love proved too painful for her. So Naruto had granted her leave, with only a half joking advice not to gamble her future away at casinos._

_She didn't._

_Instead, she was found by a half deranged Kabuto who transferred the last of Orochimaru's tainted cells into her medic nin body. This proved to be breakthrough Orochimaru needed to find the perfect host. Sakura's body proved stable and enduring, able to withstand multiple regenerations and not lose one iota of her healthy appearance. The only thing he could not get rid of was the pink hair._

_It was funny how Konoha's nightmares from then on come with pink hair. Naruto did not have many regrets in his life, but killing Sakura-turn-Orochimaru was one of them. People had given up on the Uchiha bastard long time ago, Naruto's forgiveness does not include the life and safety of his child. Sometimes, he just wished the Itachi had been more through in his fratricide._

/

And now the Nightmare of Konoha was crying pathetically in front of him. Her thin, fragile neck well within his grasps. Even in a weak eight year old body, Naruto had more than enough strength to pinch the life out of another eight year old. Stepping silently, Naruto placed the lunch box on the floor and approached. Whether it was instinct, or something else, Sakura suddenly lifted her tear stained face just as Naruto's hand breezed against the hair on her neck.

"W-" Sakura gulped, "What are you doing? Who are you?"

Naruto froze. What am I doing indeed. Had he gone so far into madness that he would kill a child for no reason? Orochimaru hadn't even set foot in Konoha for years, there was no reason for Kabuto to even consider Sakura as a container unless he was desperate. He stepped closer. Frightened, Sakura scrambled back, trying to get away from the stranger.

"Wh-Who are you? G-get away from me!"

Who am I?

It was question Naruto had not pondered for a long time. Who he was had been defined by others long ago. He was the Kyuubi brat, the Dead Last, the Loser that no one would play with. He was the Orphan. He was the great Rokudaime. He was the destroyer of S-class ninjas. He was the Fool on the team equation. The Yondaime's legacy, the Victim, the Sacrifice, the Loudmouth. He was many things. But above all-

Naruto step closer, boxing in the frightened girl. He brushed her greasy matted bangs back and stared into watery green eyes.

"I'm a friend,"


	4. Masks

Sakura stared at the peculiar face in front of her. The- person, she suppose, was smiling, well, it looked like she was smiling, wait, was it even a girl?

She had been crying her eyes out behind some bushes, upset and frightened by some of the ninja family girls that had teased her about her forehead. Small and different with her bubble gum pink hair, Sakura was the butt of most jokes, unable to defend herself, her civilian family name inadequate to defend her. She had been enrolled into the 'ninja' academy due to 'subsidies' just like other civilians, she didn't know what these 'subsidies' were, but it seemed important enough to make even her solemn father smile once in a while. This usually happened when a messenger bird drops by with more of these 'subsidies'. The day she was accepted into the 'official program', the whole family had had barbecue at Moritake's. Even father, who usually refuses to eat anything not made by his own hand. They were bakers by trade, and had plenty of leftovers to eat most of the time.

So when the other children teased her and made fun of her, Sakura would bite her lip and say nothing when she got home. Her parents were happy, and she wanted to keep it that way. However, sometimes the bullying gets too much, and she cried herself to pieces. Tearing herself apart trying to decide what to do. The one time she had hinted that something bad was happening at school, mother had wanted to pull her out, and father looked grim for days. There had been an official report and the other kids backed off for a while. Unfortunately children had short memories, and now they were at it again.

Sakura always had a good head for remembering things. She knew all the shop's specials and could recite five different kinds of bread recipe by heart. Sometimes, mother wouldn't even bother with a recipe book with Sakura there. She would say, 'Sakura, how much butter do I need with Papa's nut bread?' and Sakura would answer without hesitation, "Two sticks and cream it well," from the other end of the room, father would smile into his own dough and wave a floury hand at Sakura.

The person before her could not compute in Sakura's mind, she had never seen her?him? before. Maybe. Still, Sakura felt shameful and sorry that someone saw her crying, yet some part felt relieved. She had been hiding, but she wanted to be found somehow, to be comforted. She wanted to believe this person to be a 'friend'. So she sniffed and asked, "What's your name?"

The eye disappeared into a cheerful curve, "Me? What do you think?"

Sakura frowned, what kind of answer is that? "What kind of answer is that?" she said out loud.

"Maa," a hand crept up to scratch at yellow, pink and red fuzz, "I guess that's because it depends on whether you are asking about my real name, my everyday name or my secret name," the hooded person winked.

Wait, can a person with only one eye wink?

Confused, and a little angry, Sakura scowled, "That's not funny, a person have only one name and one name only," She stomped her feet and glared at the weird scarf covered in faces.

"Neh, in this case I'll tell you my everyday name," Naruto stuck out a hand, "Hi! I'm Noriko, Kakashi-san calls me Nori-chan and the villagers called me that Evil Brat and Iruka-sensei calls me little Teruteru-chan!"

"Teruteru-chan?" Sakura mused, she could understand the 'Nori' from Noriko but Teruteru-chan seemed a bit random to her.

"Well?" Nori-chan demanded.

"Well what?" Sakura was getting annoyed.

"What about you? Tell me your everyday name!"

"Ah, I'm Sakura," she paused, and muttered under her breath, "… and the others calls me Forehead Girl or Billboard Head…"

"REALLY!" was the very shrilled reply and a huge blue eye stopped within an inch of her face.

"Gyaah!" Sakura jumped and floundered backwards. "Don't do that!"

Noriko was currently looking at Sakura through a little window created by both thumb and index fingers. A fox's window, thought Sakura nervously, blanching under the tight scrutiny. She could imagine the tip of a tongue sticking out in concentration under the scarf.

"I don't see it…"

"See what?" Sakura dug her toes into the dirt nervously.

"Your forehead, it's like a normal forehead," the voice was oddly disappointed, "It's not big at all,"

"But it's huge!"Sakura was fairly indignant. She brushed her bangs back, "See!"

Noriko's one visible eye squinted, "It's normal, this is boring," she flounced back to the bushes, "Let's talk about something more interesting, like lunch!"

Sakura had opened her mouth to argue, but caught herself in time to realize how ridiculous she'd sound. One hand crept up to touch her forehead, and for once, the hairless patch of skin did not felt overly wide and large against her palm. Smiling, Sakura picked up her own lunch and crept into the bushes behind her new friend. It did not occur to her until later to speculate about Noriko's covered face.

000000

Two minutes after getting to know her, Sakura concluded that her new friend, _friend,_ Noriko-chan, was completely weird. The first clue was the way she treated Sakura's forehead, calling it 'boringly normal' and just dismissed her pain just like that. Of course, considering the scarf and cloth around her face, Sakura could only conclude that Noriko-chan must have had even worse facial scarring to not be bothered by her forehead. Suddenly, Sakura felt ashamed by the fuss she made about her unmarred forehead. Here was a girl who could not even show her face in public, and was comforting her about her 'large' forehead.

Squaring her shoulder in determination, Sakura made a vow to never ask Noriko about her face, no matter what. They ate in companionable silence, Sakura looking down at her food while Noriko tried to be sneaky about popping pieces of her fish nugget into her mouth without being seen. Kakashi had shown her how to eat without showing any part of her lower face, but it takes practice to perfect the technique.

Naruto still had mixed feelings about having Kakashi as a 'guardian'. Especially when the man looked so young, so _earnest_ about earning Noriko's trust. The man had presented Noriko with a small _teruterubozu_ at their first meeting. It was a simple square cloth tied to look like a head with a fluttery body. The classic henohenomoheji as its face, Naruto later found that the 'head' was stuffed with soft mochi, sweets which he made a snack of after doctor Minami's check-up session. Naruto soon had a good collection of these things. Each of them held something special, once taken out or eaten, Naruto would stuff the head with bits of cotton or bandages to puff the head back into its round shape and hang it up by the shelves built especially for Noriko's collection. Today, as a first day of returning to school present, Kakashi had given Noriko a bigger, slightly better made version of the usual thing as a stuffed toy.

Touched, Naruto had hugged the man by his knees and put eggplants into their breakfast miso. Kakashi had scratched the back of his head at the breakfast display, "Araa, you shouldn't have gone to such trouble,"

"But, Kakashi-sensei! Everyone must contribute in a household," Naruto had cheekily chirped.

"Ano," Kakashi looked around the room, "I'm sure you do the dusting in here, and the laundry and the sweeping and the cooking and…" he narrowed his eyes, "I believed those curtains were grey last week,"

Naruto just gave him the classic curve eye smile. In truth, he had been investigating the house, using 'cleaning' as an excuse. Kage bunshins are so useful. At any rate, he felt no guilt about taking Sasuke's place as Kakashi's favourite. If there was ever a person Naruto could hate was Orochimaru, although, over the years, Sasuke came closed. The moron's sheer stupidity and arrogance grated over his nerves. Not to mention all the unnecessary pain and sacrifice needed to redeem an unredeemable man. The Sasuke now was pretty lucky to have the Uchiha's backing, otherwise, Naruto would have snapped the scrawny neck of the world's most stupid person in a flash. Genjutsu or not, it would be perfectly satisfying.

Popping another roll into Noriko's small mouth, Naruto mulled over his options. The belief that this is just an elaborated genjutsu fades every passing day. The sheer pointlessness of it was the first clue. One way to confirm either way was to consult the demon within him. However, Naruto knew he was being watched closely, Kakashi was a professional even though he acted silly over Noriko's well being. He would suspect something if Naruto were to drop into a trance to check on the demon.

"Noriko…"

Not that there's any real special reason to visit the demon. He really doubted it would tell him anything useful anyway. Its contribution would likely be something like Rawr! Die! Meat Bag! Growl! which does little to help him in his current situation.

"Noriko,"

Iruka-sensei was charmingly nervous as a young tutor, Naruto couldn't ever remember Iruka being nervous before, even when faced with the infamous Copy Nin of the future. Kakashi was the one who had acted sheepish around Iruka. Come to think of it, Kakashi's reaction towards the Iruka now was similar to how he had acted before in the past, future, past, whatever.

"Noriko!"

Naruto jumped a little at the shout, and was surprise to see an angry Sakura with puffed up pink hair glaring at him. Oh, he'd lost himself in his own head again. Something that everyone swore is going to get him killed one day. Opting for a surprised reaction, Naruto widen his exposed eye and tilt Noriko's head thirty-five degrees to the left.

"Nyeh? What is it?"

If anything, Sakura's hair stood up even more, "I've been calling and calling you," she glowered, "weren't you listening?"

"Un, I get lost in my own head sometimes,"

"Eh?" Sakura face vaulted.

"Yeah, it's a really mixed up place," Naruto eye smile her, "What was it again?"

"I said, how come I don't see you at school? I know all the girls at school,"

"Nyeh, that's cause I'm in a tutoring class, see? I had a bad accident and had to skip for a few months,"

"Oh,"

Naruto didn't bother to tell her that 'Noriko' was in the advance class. Naruto had been in three 'advance classes' before children his age caught up and finally graduating with them by the skin of his teeth. By then, he'd been badly disillusioned by the notion of studying and was concentrating on pranks instead.

"So, so I guess you're really, really good?" Sakura asked in a small voice.

"Just a little bit," Naruto replied modestly.

Sakura seemed to curl in herself even more. "I'm very bad at all this ninja stuff, I mean learning is fun, but I'm not so good in flowers and taijutsu and stuff,"

"Nyeh, all that takes is a little practice," Naruto wrinkled his nose, flowers? He knew a weed from an herb of course, but flower arrangements? Bleh!

"But, I'm really, really bad!" Sakura burst out, "I'm really bad in star throwing and hand fighting and flower arranging and I really, really don't want to look stupid," she finally whispered.

Stupid Sakura? Now that was an oxymoron if he ever heard one, thought Naruto. The Sakura he knew was always confident, if desperately so, sometimes. He had never really known Sakura as a little girl, only starting to notice her as a potential partner at twelve years old. He knew about the forehead thing of course, who wouldn't with Ino yelling it at every intervention, but he'd never knew how deep it went.

"Sakura-chan," Naruto paused, should he do this?

Sakura sniffed pitifully, and he made up his mind. He will make Sakura a competent ninja, so much so that she will never look at that traitor Uchiha as anything but a weak arrogant boy. Yes, the crux of the girls attraction had been Uchiha's 'tragic survivor' look, if he could interest Sakura into medical ninjutsu early, and perhaps graduate earlier than the Traitor…

"Hey, hey," Naruto smiled foxily at Sakura, "Wanna go throw some stars later?"

000000

The Uchiha police force was filled with clones of Itachi and Sasuke, was Naruto's first thought. He had completely forgotten about the whole massacre thing that had crawled up the Traitor's butt and died a grisly death. In some ways, he wondered about his own amazing skill in forgetting. He had come across a bunch of Uchiha that day, they had looked at Noriko's little form with a little fear, Kakashi's lanky person with hatred and just a little less fear and then turned up their collective Uchiha noses on them. Man, it was like they shared a mind or something. Hive mind, thought Naruto intelligently, remembering that obscure time where he'd sat down with Shino to talk about… stuff.

Kakashi squeezed Noriko's fingers, "Don't bother about them,"

Naruto blinked, "I'm not worried,"

"You aren't?" Kakashi asked in surprised.

Naruto suddenly realized how potentially dangerous this conversation could go. Fortunately, his brained kicked in and his mouth replied, "'Cause I got Kakashi-san with me, yeah?"

For a moment, Naruto thought Kakashi would actually go 'aww'. Naruto hoped he wouldn't actually do it since it would be really creepy, especially since Iruka-sensei's already doing it on a regular basis. He'd stashed the stuffed teruterubozu at home to avoid being 'awwed' at so often. Sakura-chan had been coaxed into the remedial classes with Iruka-sensei, Naruto had strong armed her into coming with Noriko. He'd also bribed Iruka with an apple stuffed teruterubozu and introduced her to Kakashi as 'My bestest friend ever!' Both men had melted according to plan, though no doubt Kakashi immediately went to check up on Sakura's background. Naruto was not worried, Sakura's family are civilians through and through, nothing to be wary of.

Though he may have been too optimistic and spoken too soon as usual, thought Naruto as he eyed the stern looking man before him. A stone face man who is also known as Haruno-san the baker and Sakura-chan's father. The gooey eye trick did not work on the man, nor did the cute blush. He did notice however, that Sakura's mom, Hana, had brown hair. Does this means that-

No, no, no, he was not going to go there. Casting another suspicious eye at the bandana around the stern man's head, Naruto thought Haruno Takahiro wouldn't look out of place with a few screw holes on his scalp.

"Daddy, Mummy, this is my best friend Nori-chan and her daddy, Kakashi-san," Sakura shifted her weight nervously.

Naruto beamed reflexively, who cares if no one could actually see it. Naruto had perfected the art of radiating happiness, "Please to meet you, Haruno-san!"

"Ah, please to meet you," Kakashi scratched the back of his head. He'd never had to interact on a social footing with anyone before, let alone civilians. Noriko was different, Noriko was Noriko.

"Welcome to our home," Haruno-san sound anything but welcoming.

Both Kakashi and Noriko bowed politely, murmuring pleasantries. They are here for a small slumber party between Noriko and Sakura. The Harunos hadn't want Sakura to go off to a strange man's house, ninja or not. So Kakashi had brought Noriko over instead. It was part of Sandaime's plan to get him socialized. The walk here had not been unpleasant, save for a few evil eyes from the Uchiha clan members, most had been quite respectable. They were similarly respectable towards the Hatake ward, not many knowing that he had the Kyuubi child with him.

Noriko had been quiet during the way, as she was wont to among strangers. She had been unusually chatty with that young chuunin Iruka and made friends with Sakura, but that was it. There was a definite wariness about her when she saw the Uchiha police officers, then again, she may have been intimidated by their imposing presence. Kakashi knew they hated him for having Obito's eye, that hate may have been transferred onto little Noriko.

"Please come in," Haruno Hana was more pleasant, gesturing for them to come in.

Both ward and caretaker sat together. There were tea and orange juice on the table, Kakashi wondered if this was such a good idea. Sakura trotted in from the kitchen with her father bearing trays of teacakes. She sat the tray down with a clatter and smiled at the visitors.

"Papa made them," she announced proudly, "and I helped,"

Hana dished some cakes out onto small plates and placed some toothpicks next to it, "Please try some, it's the week's special,"

Kakashi sipped his hot tea through his mask. Noriko poked one of the small cakes with a toothpick and keeping her mouth hidden behind the scarf, popped the little morsel in. The Haruno's blinked, but did not comment, clearly Sakura had brief them about the strangeness of the Hatakes. Kakashi was glad for her foresight. Now for conversations.

"Maa, Sakura-chan is getting very well with her studies," he tried.

"Ah, our Sakura-chan is quite good with her memory, but I'm afraid is a little bad with everything else," was Hana-san's comment.

"Oh, no, no, Sakura-chan is getting better with her throwing stars and chakra control," Kakashi inverted his eye, "In fact, she's better then Noriko-chan in fine arts and kunoichi skills,"

"Ah, but I heard Noriko-chan could always hit a target she wants and so strong!"

"Maa, Sakura-chan is so much better in-"

And so they went on, complimenting the other child and putting down their own. Small talk between parents under the bored eyes of the children. Haruno-san had disappeared into the kitchen halfway through. Sakura tugged at Noriko's sleeves.

"Come on, Papa's making cream puffs for tomorrow, let's help,"

"Un, Kakashi-san…?"

"Ah," Kakashi rubbed the back of his head, he turned to Hana, "You don't mind?"

"Oh no, please go ahead," she waited until the pattering of feet disappeared, "Kakashi-san, I must be frank with you,"

"Aaa," Kakashi became wary.

"About Sakura-chan," she hesitated, "My husband and I, we aren't from a ninja clan, we aren't poor, but we're not rich either."

Kakashi kept his silence.

"Sometimes, I wonder if we made the right decisions sending her to the Academy. It seems such a dangerous world, but-" She moved her hand helplessly.

"I understand," Kakashi set the cup down, "How far she goes is all up to her, but I will keep an eye on both girls,"

Hana's eyes misted a little, "Thank you,"

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When it was time for Kakashi to leave the Haruno's, Noriko came out of the kitchen to hug Kakashi by the leg and bid him a cheerful goodbye. Kakashi patted Noriko on the head, the red and blonde fuzz had grown out in chunky spikes, he wondered if length would changed its texture the way it did with Kushina.

"Bye-bye, Kakashi-san! I'll bring you cream puffs after we made them, kay?"

Ah, perceptive as always, "I'll be fine, Nori-chan, play nice with Sakura-chan," he looked up to see the pink hair girl watching the exchange anxiously. Such a nice little girl, Kakashi thought, on impulse, he ruffled the pink fluffy hair as well. "Take care and don't make too much trouble,"

"We won't!" came the twin chorus.

_Aww._

He waved at the little girls until the house was out of sight. Then, shoving his hands into his pocket, Kakashi wondered about the streets of Konoha. He was on leave from Anbu and was given some time to readjust to normal life. Whatever normal is. He never had it normal before, he didn't know if he was normal enough for Noriko. As he meandered about the streets his feet took him to the memorial stone. Ah yes, this was normal for him.

Kakashi studied the stone, the flowers surrounding it, the newly chipped names crawling behind old ones. Someone had died recently.

He didn't know how long he stood there, but the sun was setting when he heard the voice that intruded his thoughts.

"Kakashi-san?" the voice was mellow, young.

Kakashi turned just enough to catch the shadow of a perky ponytail. It was Noriko's chuunin sensei. Ordinary brown eyes studied him curiously.

"Um, not to sound rude or anything, but, you've been standing here all day,"

"…all day?"

"Aa, I passed by this place on the way to the mission office, that was half passed two, it's close to dinner time now,"

"… technically, that would make it half a day, wouldn't it?" answered Kakashi just to be contrary.

"Well, I'd thought you'd be spending the day Noriko-chan, not a block of stone," Iruka sounded a little accusative.

Kakashi couldn't blame him, but he didn't want to be painted the villain either. "She's at Sakura's, slumber party,"

"Oh, er, I see," realisation dawn on the sensei's face, Kakashi was amused to see the blush formed around the scar.

Kakashi decided to rub the salt in a little, "So you see, there's just me, and this block of stone here," he patted the memorial stone fondly.

"Ah," Iruka paused, obviously casting about for something to say. "Er, I was just going to this new ramen stall, would you like to come?"

"Ramen?" Kakashi mused, to properly eat ramen, he would have to take off his mask and slurp the noodles. Perhaps the teacher wanted to have a look at his face? He wouldn't be the first one. Kakashi weighted his options, he could continue to keep vigil here, or he could go with the sensei. Noriko's worried blue eye wafted before him. Well, he did promise Noriko to look after himself a bit.

"Oh, alright, maybe I'll have a bowl,"

The chuunin's relief was palpable. Kakashi was a little amused to see such an expressive shinobi. He followed the young sensei, letting the inane chatter of the teacher's day wash over him. It would be nice to have dinner with someone. Besides, there's this new jutsu he intended to test out…

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Iruka was a little nervous about eating with the legendary ninja. Without Noriko around to act as a buffer, the presence of the man was more obvious. However, he could not bring himself to leave the man alone. Kakashi-san had looked so lonely for a moment that Iruka just blurted out the invitation. Now, he could not take it back. Seated at the new ramen place, Iruka ordered regular miso, he heard Kakashi ordered the same dish with an absentmindedness that usually preceded marking time. Evening time was usually marking time for him. However, it would be rude to do so in front of such an illustrious person, so Iruka refrained.

They made small talks. When the tea came, Iruka couldn't help but stare when Kakashi drank his tea through his mask. Eww. Quickly looking away, Iruka tried not to think about drinking, mask and socks at the same time. He must have not been very successful in hiding his horror because Kakashi was soon arching his eyebrow and asked, "Now, what's so interesting, sensei?"

Iruka was not going to answer, he was not! But he was still new to this whole sensei thing and being addressed so nicely by the famous jounin made his toes curl and his stupid, stupid mouth to blurt out-

"It's your mask,"

"Oh?" Now the jounin looked more than amused.

Iruka quickly tried to dissuade his interest, "It's nothing really, your mask is fine, I mean, it's just the way you drink. I just had a horrible flashback from it. Um, I'm not talking anymore."

Now Kakashi was beyond piqued, "Oh, come on, sensei. You can't just tell me all those stuff and expect me to forget about it,"

Iruka kept his mouth closed and shook his head.

"You do realise that, as a jounin, I do have ways to torture information out of unfortunate victims," Kakashi leered. Not that Iruka could see it, but he suspected. Terribly.

Then again, as a chuunin, Iruka had undergone training to resist torture. He could do this!

Kakashi took another sip of his tea. Through his mask. Iruka broke.

"It was Kotetsu! It was all stupid Kotetsu!" Iruka finally burst out frantically.

"Interesting,"

Oh god, Iruka could see the damp outline of where the tea had _gone through_ the mask.

"It was our first time leaving the village, our stupid jounin-sensei who shall remain nameless but also known as Ibiki left us on our own in the middle of a wood that was not Konoha and told us to look for a snake with pink diamond patterns on it and oh god, I'm going to puke!" Iruka slammed some money on the counter and began walking away.

Kakashi was beyond piqued or interested now. "So, what happened?"

"Why are you still following me?" Iruka demanded, "I have told you, it was all Kotetsu's fault, it was Ibiki's fault too, and keep your mask away from me!" Iruka shied away from the damp mask that was hovering just a little too close to his ear.

Curiosity was _eating_ Kakashi now, he had to know!

"Iruka," he said calmly, "as your superior I hereby-"

*Poof!*

Kakashi blinked at the dissipating smoke and leaves before him. Huh, whatever the secret it was the chuunin was desperate enough to teleport away from him in mid sentence. Suddenly, the ridiculousness of the situation hit him and Kakashi began to laugh. Crazily and whole heartedly in the middle of the street, he barely stop when several shadows materialized around him.

Anbu Cat approached the crazy jounin warily, "Jounin Kakashi, it is time for your bi-weekly psychiatric meeting,"

In response, Kakashi merely laughed harder.

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Err, yeah, I'm not exactly sure where the story will go, and um, sorry for those who are looking forward to Iruka at Hogwart's update, I've been having a little problem choosing a plot for the story without making an over powered Naruto or a seriously angsting Iruka. Hmm, now that's a thought, I _could_ put up an extra fic section for 'rejected plots'. It would contain various scenes I've considered, written and finally rejected from the main plot of all my stories. What do you think?


	5. Mizuki

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Curiosity is a funny thing. Before, Kakashi had not thought about that little chuunin that tutored Noriko as anything beyond a shinobi with too little strength and too much knowledge. But now…

Now with the strange reaction to his mask and the sheer gall of refusing to answer a direct question from the Great Copy Nin, the chuunin Umino Iruka is now registered within Kakashi's radar. Every day he made it a point to send Noriko right to the doorstep of her classroom just to catch a glimpse of the curious young man. Every day, when he could, he would lingered and try to catch the sensei's attention. It was really amusing to see the thin eyebrows start spasming at his presence. It was as if the sensei was allergic to him.

Fu fu fu.

How fun! Noriko seemed oblivious to the game both adults were playing. Kakashi didn't really think the chuunin was holding any security risk secrets. He was just having fun poking around where he was not wanted. The psyche nin were concern about his mental welfare, but deemed his current past time to be 'acceptable'.

Currently, they were at the field near the Academy, having an after school lunch. Noriko was busy picking flowers with Sakura at one end of the field while Kakashi was enjoying the presence of the good sensei at the picnic mat, presumably getting an update on Noriko's academic achievements.

"Noriko-chan's basics are very good, outstanding actually, so is Sakura's. We're only focussed on katas and basic stances for now, no formal fighting yet,"

"Oh? Why not?"

"I don't have the authority to supervise a fight, not yet,"

"Mmm,"

"Her kunoichi skills are getting better, she's learning how to cook at Sakura's place and had developed an interest with knitting,"

"Knitting," Kakashi gave the sensei a bland stare.

"Well, yes, it is a bit strange, but she would knit all kinds of things during classes," Iruka was getting a little defensive, "when I called her on it, she proved that her… recreation does not impede her consciousness at all," In other words, her situational awareness is great enough that it did not impede her when it comes to doing a few things simultaneously.

"What about Sakura?" It's always good to check out the competition.

"Sakura-chan pays a lot of attention in class, she's better at memorizing information and working out logic puzzles," Iruka remembered by rote, he'd just written out a report on both students, Kakashi was Noriko's guardian and Sakura-chan's de facto caretaker so it's okay to share it with him. "They kept a lot to themselves, so I'd recommend for them to be integrated to regular classes soon in order to socialize a bit more before

Kakashi nodded, he knew what it was like to be a so-called 'genius' shinobi. He wanted something better for Noriko, it would do her good to have more friends her age. Kakashi had had Itachi as his subordinate for a while, and truth to tell the boy was a little too creepy in his professionalism.

It reminded Kakashi a just a tad too much of himself.

A tug on his pants reminded him that Noriko was still around and it was lunch time. Oh, right, he was here to annoy the very intriguing sensei. Curving his eye, he smiled at Iruka, "Yo, sensei, would you like to come with us for lunch?"

He had brought reinforcements today, today is the day the sensei crack under his diligent efforts. He watched as Iruka visibly steel himself, and dropped the stuffed teruterubozu with one blue eye into Noriko's arms. Iruka flinched from the cute attack.

_Aww_- erk, cough cough

Kakashi stepped closer into Iruka's personal space, "What do you say, sensei?"

Just then, a door opened and a female person poked her head out, "Ah, Iruka-san, if you could please come to the staff room…"

"Yes! Please! Er, sorry Kakashi-san, work, I have work, very busy you know, bye!" with that, he whooshed out of the room with a smattering of leaves.

Noriko frowned behind her scarf, "Why are you mean to Iruka-sensei, Kaka-san?"

"Naah hahaha," Kakashi rubbed the back of his head, "I was just joking with Iruka-sensei. It was all good fun,"

The frown did not go away, "Please don't do it again, that was mean," there was no particular inflexion to her voice, but Kakashi knew she was unhappy about the matter.

Scrubbing the short hair, Kakashi smiled, "Fine, fine, I'll leave the good sensei alone, just for you, my little peaches,"

Noriko tensed so much that her body seemed to have frozen under Kakashi's hand, "Noriko?"

In a trembling voice, Noriko implored, "Please, Kakashi-san, don't call me that,"

_Aww_

Unable to help himself, Kakashi scooped up the little girl and rubbed his chin over the peachy fuzz, "Aww, but you're my precious, precious Peaches. See? All yellow and pink and red, so cute!"

By now a group had gathered to watch the Copy Nin make a fool of himself. The Anbu had dropped in to take Noriko to her doctor's appointment, and much to everyone's relief, Kakashi decides to go with them too.

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The day they rejoined the regular class for lessons was the day Sakura first saw Noriko lost her cool. The cheerful girl stopped dead in her tracks at the door, clenched her fists and walked out abruptly. Mizuki-sensei stopped in the middle of his greeting for them when both girls suddenly retreated from his sight. He stepped cautiously into the corridor to find the girls crouching at one corner. Noriko was coughing into her scarf while Sakura was trying to convince her to get it off for better breathing.

"Is everything alright?" the calm voice of the sensei was a contrast against the tensed agitation of Noriko's shoulder under her hands.

"Are you sick? Noriko?" Sakura whispered, getting more anxious by the second. She'd never seen her unflappable friend like this.

"Sakura? Noriko?" Mizuki-sensei's voice was getting closer.

And then-

And then what happened was something Sakura could never fully describe. There was a sensation of wind whipping past her face. A high pitched scream tore along the walls scraping against her ears. Then, fire. Searing heat built up behind her, Noriko was no longer couching against the wall in front of her. A man's scream freeze the blood in her veins. Frightened, but irresistibly drawn, Sakura turned to look.

Fire.

Fire was everywhere.

Burning bright orange and dangerously within reach. There was heat, enough that Sakura felt uncomfortably hot, but not threatened despite her proximity. Through the bright orange, she could see the outline of a small figure.

"Noriko?"

The flame _shimmered_.

"Nori-chan?"

The figure turned its head. There, within the heart of the orange curtain was a ball of fire that burned brighter then the sun. The image brought to mind stories about ghost fires and hell creatures with fiery eyes…

Through the dancing flames Sakura finally realized what she had been staring at. The ball of fire was Noriko's hidden eye.

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When Iruka felt the sudden surge of chakra, his first thought was to cringe under his desk and never come out again. The ninja in him swiftly kicked out that thought by replacing it with images of frightened students. Half a second later, all that was left of his presence was a lone piece of paper fluttering to the ground.

He followed the chakra on swift feet, cursing Kakashi for being on a mission the very day he may well be needed. He then proceeded to curse himself for his insensitive and unreasonable thoughts. With all the chakra lashing around, he didn't dare try to use teleportation. He pounded along the corridor, dropping stealth for speed. He skidded past a bunch of people gathered to stare at the curtain of fire blocking up the pathway to Mizuki's class. Little Sakura-chan was kneeling in a corner and there was a similar figure in the centre of the flames.

"Sakura-chan!" he cried out against the roar of the flames. "Sakura!"

Sakura turned tear streaked face at him, "I-ruka, sensei?"

Her face was bright red from the heat, but despite her proximity to the fire, nothing seemed burned. Even her hair didn't look singed. Some sense of relief entered Iruka, "Sakura-chan," he said urgently, "you have to move over here, come here slowly,"

"No!" and to Iruka's horror, she actually inched closer to the fire.

"Sakura!"

"No, no! They will hurt Noriko," she was on all fours now, facing the growing crowd, "I won't leave her!"

"Sakura-chan," Iruka said helplessly. It was true, the killing intent was faint behind him, but it was there. If there was any great opportunity to get rid of the Container, this was it.

A hand landed heavily on his shoulder.

"Step aside, sensei. It's time to finish this,"

Iruka gritted his teeth, for a moment, his body tensed, as if to fight against the person holding him back. It took a while before he relaxed quite deliberately and allowed the hand to propel him back. Under Sakura's disappointed eyes, Iruka took one step back and another. There was no warning when his next step propelled him forward, breaking past the chuunin teacher that had held him back.

Umino Iruka was not a suicidal man, he may never make it as an elite fighter or even a jounin, but if there's one thing Iruka could always count on is his mind. The fire had felt unnaturally hot even at the distance where he had stopped to observe the situation. Sakura-chan was sitting almost on top of the flames, but looked only slightly sunburnt where the other teachers had singed marks on their clothing. He was taking a chance here. It would seem that the fire is actually less hot the closer it is to the core. Maybe.

And…he swallowed. It would seem that Noriko is at the centre of the core.

He thought about Noriko's sweet, eccentric ways and how she would frown adorably at a knot in her knitting, and scowled whenever Iruka tried to quiz her about ninjutsu theories. There was no doubt about it, he had to try and save her. Ignoring the screaming commands behind him, Iruka gave little Sakura a smile, doing his best to convey reassurance. Sakura clutched at his hand, her skin felt hot to the touch, he would have to get a medi-nin to look at her to make sure she wasn't suffering any side effects from the heat.

"Please save her, Iruka-sensei,"

Iruka swallowed, "I'll do my best," and stepped into the fire.

It was hot.

Like lying on a tin roof in the middle of the afternoon. Painful, unbearable but not impossibly so. He had expected to see his skin peel off in the flame, had waited to see if he would actually die at this place. At the Konoha Academy. At the tender age of sixteen. There was pain, excruciatingly painful sensation tore at his face and hands where his body was not covered by cloth. The fire whipped across his body like hot wind, reminding him of missions to Wind Country.

"Noriko?"

She was just within his reach now. Her back was against him, vividly bright hair tossing in the unnatural winds.

"You shouldn't be here, Iruka-sensei,"

Her voice was faint in the roar of the flames. Iruka had to strain to hear it. "Please, Noriko-chan, stop this now. Sakura-chan's worried about you." He took another step closer, "_I'm_ worried about you,"

Noriko turned just a little. The scarf was long gone, thick lines marked her exposed cheek. So that's why she hid her face.

"You know what I am, Iruka-sensei, this," she gestured before her, "Do you think this is a forgivable act?"

At first, Iruka thought Noriko was just pointing out the flames to him. A closer look revealed a shadowed figure just a little beyond five feet. A man shape shadow.

"Noriko," Iruka swallowed, "What have you done?"

Noriko seemed to pause to think, "He will betray Konoha," she answered finally.

"He will-" Iruka choked, "Y-you little- He's a ninja of Konoha! He's your teacher! He's my friend and you-" he sank to his knees, "How could you do this," he hissed.

For once, something like awareness entered her eye, "Are you upset, Iruka-sensei?"

"Don't!" he cried, "Don't call me that! I'm not your sensei, I'm no sensei to a- a mere unfeeling monster!"

Noriko turned fully to stare at him, Iruka finally saw her other eye, or rather, a writhing ball of fire that made up a mockery of an eye.

"You're upset," she frowned, pulling the marks on her cheeks, "I'm sorry,"

"Sorry? You're sorry?" Iruka did not care about his position now. He didn't care that he was now probably facing the Kyuubi. Mizuki had been his best friend and now- now, "You just killed my best friend and all you can say is sorry!"

The girl seemed to waver under his words. The fire in her eye dimmed and closed. The fiery curtain fell. Sakura dashed towards Noriko, latching around her neck and crying. Iruka clenched his fist, the ninja behind him advanced, but none of them dared to touch the girl marked by Kyuubi and was able to burn a man to shadows with her eye.

Masked shadows leaped in to secure the perimeters before taking both girls away. Noriko, because of the danger she posed, and Sakura, because she would not let go of her friend. They would have tried harder, maybe, if the shadow of a dead man had not been so closed, and the voices of children reminding them that their all inside a building full of Konoha's future generation.

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Sakura swung her leg as she stared at the man with long, long yellow hair in the exact same shade as Ino. Noriko is in a different room. At first, Sakura had refused to let her friend go. Something innate within her told her that leaving her friend exposed to strangers is a bad idea. Really, she had thought better of Iruka-sensei, but then he became angry and started yelling at Noriko. Although, if Mizuki-sensei is really Iruka-sensei's best friend… Well, Sakura knows how angry she would be if someone tries to hurt Noriko. She had bit the hand of one shadow person who tried to push Noriko's shoulder too hard, so what if the man had lifted his hand casually, nearly lifting Sakura off her feet.

It's just a warning.

The shadow people had rumbled a little, but let Sakura hung on to her friend. It wasn't until the hokage had arrived with a sour face doctor with him that Sakura allow them to take Noriko away. Now she was alone, and the fire inside her cooled a bit from being alone. When the blonde man came in, she felt almost relieve. Perhaps he would tell her about Noriko?

The man settled in front of her with a pleasant smile, "Well now, Sakura is it?"

"Yes," Sakura wondered if this is the 'terogator' they learned about at school and wondered if she would survive having bamboo sticks under her nails. She curled her fingers reflexively.

"Ah, Ino-chan has told me a little about you, you are friends with Noriko, right?"

"Yeah,"

"How long have you known your… friend?"

"…" Sakura paused to count the time, "…maybe, three months?"

"I see, and how did you two meet?"

"… we met at school," there was no way she was telling this stranger about her forehead, "I was sad and she cheered me up,"

"Do your parents know about this?"

"What?"

"Your… friendship with… Noriko,"

Sakura frowned at the pauses, "Noriko came to our house for a slumber party last week, we made cream puffs and put pictures on our aprons,"

"Pictures?"

"Yeah, daddy has lots of aprons and Noriko likes to sew, so we cut up some cloth and stitch them on the apron. I made sakura flowers."

"What pictures did Noriko make?"

Sakura gave him a look that questioned his ability to think, "Henohenomoheji of course,"

"Really?" the reply was sceptical.

"They're very hard to make," Sakura declared boldly, getting impatient with all the questions. "Where is Noriko-chan? I want to see her,"

"She's seeing her doctor now," the man declared smoothly, "now tell me about-"

"Who are you anyway?" Sakura demanded suddenly, "Mommy told me not to talk to strangers!"

"Ah, now, now, Sakura-chan-"

"I want to see Noriko!" Sakura started to kick the table, "I want to see Noriko-chan!"

The man slammed a hand on the table. Shocked, Sakura paused long enough to look up in fear.

"That's enough, the brat is now being held captive for the murder of Touji Mizuki. She will not be receiving visitors until the hokage is finished with her," his stony gaze did not soften, "Now I suggest for you to cooperate and help with the investigation. Is that understood?"

Sakura continued to stare.

"I said, is that understood!"

Sakura's lips trembled, "y-yes, sir,"

It was almost two weeks before she was finally able to see Noriko and it wasn't for the lack of effort. She had inquired everyday after school, had pestered the police that guarded that 'terogator' place. Had written long letters to the hokage office, requesting a meeting, had walked past Noriko's house few times a day to see if Kakashi-san is back from his mission. Her parents were worried, business was down as well, they had been eating baked goods from the shop for the second week now, that's how she knew. Ami had teased and jeered at her almost the very day she set foot in the classroom, but Sakura was too upset to let it get to her. Noriko-chan was missing! Noriko-chan had killed a chuunin sensei and might be put to death!

Sakura was so distraught she did not even notice it when Yamanako Ino brutally discouraged Ami and her group of friends from going after her. Nor did she perceive the pitying glance the blonde aimed at her. She did notice when Hatake-san dropped in front of her with a cheerful wave. Sakura took one look at the man whom she had been waiting for all week and promptly burst into tears.


	6. Value

Happy Chinese New Year to all my readers!

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Kakashi had timed his return from his mission just in time for the academy to release their little hellions. He couldn't wait to see little Noriko and Sakura-chan. He had plans to bring them to the barbecue shop to celebrate their return to normal schooling which he had missed due to the highly classified mission that requires the skill of Sharingan Kakashi. Noriko is sure to have lots of funny comments to make and Sakura would be there to pretend to be shy and occasionally poke fun at her friend.

Sakura's pink hair was like a bright beacon in the sun. Like a homing pigeon, Kakashi swop in on her, "Yo, Sakura-chan!"

Blank green eyes stared at him for a moment.

"Sakura-chan?"

The next thing he knew, the little girl burst into tears and threw herself at him. Sobbing and babbling about 'terogators', 'Noriko' and 'trouble'. For a moment, Kakashi let surprise and horror waved over him. But only for a moment, then the ninja in him took over. Ice cold logic took hold of his reasoning. Hands settle down heavily on Sakura's shoulders, Kakashi knelt to eye level with the little girl.

"Sakura," he said, voice serious and calm, "Tell me what happen,"

Sakura was still sniffing when Kakashi pushed her away from him, but she did not protest. Staring into the serious eye of her adopted caretaker she pulled her emotions together.

"Two weeks ago we came to school for the first time. Noriko-chan was ok until we reach the classroom and- and saw s-sensei," she swallowed, "Noriko became sick and it looks like her tummy hurt when she saw M-mizuki-sensei." She sniffed, "Noriko didn't want to go to class, she went down sick and sad and I can't just leave her!"

"Go on,"

"M-mizuki-sensei came outside to see what's wrong and- and then Noriko-chan killed him!" Sakura clutched Kakashi's wrist, "She killed him with fire!" her voice was close to hysterical.

"Sakura, I need you to concentrate," Kakashi gave her a little shake, "tell me what happen next,"

"Lots of people came, they wanted to h-hurt Noriko, they told me to leave her but I don't want to! I want to protect Noriko. Kakashi-san you have to believe me!"

"I believe you,"

"You have to! You have to! Noriko was hurt and sad and it was an _accident_!" tears were pouring out of her eyes now, "It was an accident but no one would believe it,"

"I believe you," Kakashi repeated, "But tell me, what happen next,"

Sakura hiccupped, "Then Iruka-sensei came, I was close to the fire but I wasn't burnt. Other people came but was afraid of Noriko's fire. I called and called but no one dares to come except Iruka-sensei."

That chuunin Iruka? Thought Kakashi, "Go on," he urged.

"Iruka-sensei came through the fire and- and talked to Noriko. The fire falls and the masked people came and took us away," Sakura concluded, "A 'terogator' with yellow hair keep asking me questions and won't let me see her." She clutched at Kakashi, "Kakashi-san, Noriko could be in prison or tortured or die! Please save her!"

Kakashi finally stood up, "I will. Go home now."

It was an order Sakura was glad to follow.

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The first person Kakashi looked for was the chuunin, he was the closest and most accessible to him. The interrogator had to be a Yamanaka, but which one? He could go after the hokage, but he's doubtful about getting an actual response right away. In addition, he needed to check his facts first.

He found Umino in his little office, going over some papers and marking them. The chuunin looks up with a startled face. "H-hatake-san?"

"What happened with Noriko?"

"I- what?"

"You were there, I want to know, what happened with Noriko,"

"I'm afraid I'm not allowed to discuss-"

Kakashi didn't quite slam his palms on the desk, but it was a near thing. He didn't want this chuunin against him, Noriko liked the kid and Kakashi could smell the fear on the chuunin the moment Noriko's name was mentioned. Something happened that spooked the gutsy little chuunin who dares to stand up against legendary Copy Nins.

"Iruka, I'm afraid you don't understand. Noriko-chan is my responsibility, I need information," he looked the man in the eye, "Was the man your friend?" he was taking a wild guess here, assuming that the distraught emotions were due to the man being upset for his colleague's death.

Iruka clenched his fist, "Mizuki was my best friend,"

"…I see," he took a step back, "Well then, I'm sorry for your loss," obviously he could order the young man to tell him, but he did not want to ruin Noriko's chances for a normal life at the Academy, if she were to ever have one. He was turning to leave when Iruka called him back.

"W-wait, where are you going?"

"To the tower, I'm sorry for bothering you at this time," Kakashi arched his eyes and made to leave when a hand caught his sleeve.

"Please," Kakashi turned to the distraught chuunin, "Please, I'll tell you what I know,"

This about change was quite sudden, "What happen to 'not allowed to discuss'?"

Iruka snorted, "There were more than ten people standing around watching the event unfold," he swept an unsteady hand through his hair, "I should at least give you the accurate version,"

"Alright,"

Iruka's story mostly collaborated with Sakura's, when he reached the part where he stepped into the fire…

"Wait, wait, you're telling me that the closer you are to the core, the cooler it is?"

"It gets less hot with every step, if that's what you're asking. It was actually hotter outside the curtain of fire." Iruka breathed evenly, "there was no body there, no bones, no ashes, Noriko used some unnatural fire to burn M-mizuki so that only his shadow was left,"

"I see," he paused, "Is there anything else?"

"Not really, Sakura-chan was a little sun burnt, the walls blackened from the fire, there was no smoke…"

"Iruka… are you alright?"

"M-me? Hah, why would you ask, Kakashi-san?" he clenched his fist, "my best friend, the man I thought was my best friend-" he looked up suddenly, "You know I've never seen Noriko displayed any negative or violent behaviour. That Minami doctor could drive a priest to drink but she just smiles at him and even jokes with him. The villagers, even when they cursed her name within her hearing, she just- anyway, to do that to Mizuki, to be driven to such horrible tactics. What must have happened?" he whispered, as if afraid of the answer.

It was then, Kakashi understood the fear. Iruka was afraid _for_ Noriko. Gently, he placed a hand over the clenched fist, "I will find out,"

Iruka turned his hand to clasp Kakashi's wrist, "Please save her, Kakashi,"

"I will,"

000000

I'm getting too old for this, thought Sandaime Hokage. The third petition had just came in for the capital punishment of Noriko's 'treacherous deed', and there was nothing he could do but delay the inevitable by saying that the guardian needs to be in attendant for questioning before any law could be laid down. Danzo's offer to ensure the 'disappearance' of the jinchuuriki gains more appeal as time goes by. After all, once a person is in Ne, he or she is essentially 'dead'. However sweet the prospect promised to be, Sarutobi knew that it would probably break cheerful girl's spirit. Something that he could not bear to do with the ghost of the Yondaime hovering in his sleep for having neglected the girl enough to drive her to suicide.

So far, they have collected Haruno Sakura and Umino Iruka's statement, along with other eye witnesses' recollection of horrors that seemed to evolve and magnify with every retelling. But no matter how one twists the story, the fact remains that Uzumaki Noriko had killed an academy teacher. And the murder of fellow Konoha citizen is punishable by death.

The door opened then. It was Utatane, Mitokado and Danzo.

"The Hatake brat is in town," Utatane stated without preamble.

Sarutobi calmly lit his pipe, "I see,"

"Well?" the old matriach demanded.

"I have already sent for him," he did no such thing, "he will arrive shortly," this, he was sure of. Kakashi loves little Noriko, he would be here.

Fortunately, Kakashi's reputation is of use here. With a huff, the woman avail herself on one of the chairs. Danzo approached more slowly.

"Do you really believe this is wise, Sarutobi?"

The Sandaime blew a smoke ring, "What is, Danzo?"

"Hatake had an… unstable reputation,"

"Is that so?"

"He may not be the best influence for the Container,"

"Oh, and why is that?"

"That brat had been treating the Container as a favoured pet, buying her treats and pampering it with all sorts of unnecessary indulgences!" his tone was indignant.

"Oh?"

"A weapon is not to be pampered!" Danzo was positively trembling now, "A weapon should be sharpened and tempered by the finest smith, to be honed and prime to cut down Konoha's enemies!"

"And, who do you suppose would be the best person to be the 'smith' for this weapon," Sarutobi watched the next smoke ring expand and break up.

"If it pleases Lord Hokage to know, none of the Root trainee ever had a problem with obedience. Every mission is accomplished to the fullest of capacity following the strictest ninja code," replied Danzo with no little pride.

"Hmm,"

"I'm curious, though," Utatane spoke up from her seat, "what makes the child attack Mizuki,"

"Feh, obviously it is a lack of discipline and uncontrolled viciousness,"

"The pre-genin Haruno Sakura was standing even closer than Mizuki, but she was not harmed," Sandaime had to point out.

"Again, I reiterate. The Container's uncontrolled viciousness is a danger to the village," Danzo's expression remained stoic, "it should be muzzled and its powers directed at our enemy instead."

"Perhaps this behaviour stemmed from an aversion to authority, after all, Hatake had did his best to spoil the Container like a child with a new puppy," Mitokado contributed.

"With no one to check its uncouth behaviour, who knows which person it might target next." Danzo's tone was sombre.

"When the chuunin Umino approached, she did not attack him, but diffuse her fire at his command," Utatane unexpectedly chimed in, "Clearly she still respects authority,"

"For now," Danzo interjects smoothly, "But without true loyalty and discipline, it could still go out of control,"

"In addition, Umino was somewhat doting upon the Container. It could be that it is responding to Umino as a kind caregiver and obeyed it for treats," Mitokado seemed adamant about seeing Noriko as a powerful pet.

"Let us summarize what we have on Noriko, hmm?" The Sandaime tapped the bowl of his pipe with a finger, "First we have a potentially powerful weapon in our hands, a ninja who is capable of unleashing fire attacks at will. One who obeys a young chuunin even as it destroys another for apparently no reason."

"I believe the key lies in the reason behind the murder," Utatane was an old, experienced ninja. But she is also a woman and a mother, a grandmother even. Noriko's small and cute appearance tugged at her maternal instincts, if only a little.

"The attack is a violent meaningless assault! How many times do we have to go through this?"

"And yet, the fact remained that this 'violent meaningless assault' was not repeated on other persons besides the victim," Sarutobi said lightly, "there had been no record of any sort of assault done by Noriko on anyone ever since her coma,"

"Perhaps she was waiting, perhaps she wanted a better target,"

"A newly appointed chuunin teacher?" Sarutobi snorted, "I have been in her presence often enough, as target of assassination, would I not be a better choice? Or perhaps Kakashi, who at least holds the title of being one of the elite in Konoha?"

"As I have said, it is a violent, undisciplined creature of base intent-"

"Maa… make up your mind," attention swung to the Copy Nin who lounged carelessly at the Hokage's wide window, "Either Noriko is a super brilliant mastermind or a base mindless creature. You can't have it both ways."

"Ah, Kakashi," Sandaime said neutrally, "Glad you could joined us,"

"Meh, I heard a lot of stuff happened when I was away,"

"Your ward, the jinchuuriki, killed a fellow Konoha ninja," Danzo had great satisfaction in revealing this information.

Kakashi continued to look bored, "Is that so? Have you figured out why?"

"Our task is not to figure out 'why' but what to do about the incident,"

"Why?" The lazy look suddenly disappeared, "Why so quick about the judgement? This attack is outside of her set pattern of behaviour. As ninja, it is our prerogative to look underneath the underneath. Or have your brain rotted beyond all reason and forgotten that bit of knowledge?"

"Kakashi…" Sandaime reprimanded mildly.

Danzo did not seemed moved by the barb, "You can't reason with a mindless creature" he began, but Kakashi cut in again.

"There you go, assuming that Noriko is a mindless creature. Weren't you the one who suggested that she might be targeting someone with her attack? Or are you going to just change her state of mind all the time to suit your purpose?"

"As the ward of the jinchuuriki, your mind had obviously been prejudiced to her side." Danzo slyly stated, "Don't think your unnatural behaviour have not been noted." Noted and condemned, went unsaid.

"Perhaps we should just ask the girl," suggested Utatane, "if she's sane of mind we would know,"

"And if she gnashed her teeth and demanded blood every other sentence, than we'd also know, wouldn't we?" Mitokado murmured.

Kakashi looked like he would dearly love to plant his fist into something, but he retained his peace and gestured expensively. "By all means, let us go and ask."

And thus the party adjourned to the south level of the Anbu holding cell.

000000

They heard the humming first.

In the dimness of the dank, underground cell. The childish humming sent chills up the spine, bringing into mind of ghost children who wondered in eternal darkness. Kakashi clenched his fist at the thought of Noriko being held in a place like this and had trouble keeping his legendary Hipness, as Gai would call it.

They finally arrived at one of the cells. It wasn't quite the highest level of security. In fact, as cells go it is actually quite comfortable. There was a plump pillow on the stone bench that serves as a bed for prisoners. There was a cover for the potty bucket placed just next to the entrance. Tags, sutras and seals covered the bars of her prison and hung like tapestries at the corridor and inside the empty cells nest to the one occupied by Noriko. The tapestry like sutras moved and fluttered as though blown by a soft wind, an impossibility due to the fact that they were now underground.

"What is-" Kakashi began.

"A precaution against Kyuubi's chakra," Sandaime said, "I know it looks excessive, but it's the best we could do under the situation. It would take a seal master of higher calibre than myself to create an effective seal that is less… showy,"

In other words, Sandaime had taken the strongest containment seal he knew and drew it over and over again in large characters in hopes that it would actually be effective if Noriko decides to break out. Then, he noticed something else, the 'tapestries' had stopped moving. The humming had stopped too.

There was a giggle, "Visitors? How nice, 'welcome to the parlour said the spider to the flies'," Noriko's voice rang out clearly in the enclosed space.

"Noriko-chan?" Kakashi stepped forward first, unable to bear the possibility that Noriko might, just might, be insane from the attack.

"Kakashi-sensei? Kakashi-sensei, is that you? Did you bring ramen?" her voice was plaintive and petulant at once.

Something tightened in Kakashi's chest; Noriko had never addressed him as 'sensei' before. Is this an act of insanity?

"Noriko-chan," the Sandaime called, "I brought you some visitors,"

"Visitors?" the voice sounded interested, "Did they bring ramen?"

"Ah," the Sandaime exchanged a look with his companions, this was most... unexpected, "not today, Noriko-chan,"

"Ch, that's so boring, I want ramen!" the pout was clear in the childish voice, "So, so, anyway, since you didn't bring ramen, let's play a game instead!"

The ninjas immediately became wary.

"What kind of games would you like to play, Noriko-chan?" Sandaime kept his tone pleasant.

Giggles answered him, "This is a real easy game! First, I tell you two truths and one lie. Tell me which one is the lie and you win!"

"I see," the ninjas exchanged a look. Perhaps this is an easy way to learn the truth from the child?

"What happens if we lose, Noriko?" Kakashi finally asked.

"Then you won't know the truth, and it sucks to be you!"

"Well, then, let's start," Sandaime step forward.

"Hmm, hmm, let's see. Oh, oh, I know! You will be killed by your own student, I am of royal blood and, um Kakashi-sensei will one day betray Konoha!"

The silence was deafening. All eyes were on Kakashi.

"Wh-what? No! I would never-" but the shadows were already advancing on him, "No! Noriko, this isn't funny-"

"Kakashi would one day betray Konoha," Sandaime reiterate clearly.

"No!" Kakashi choked out, "No, never! Hokage-sama, please-"

"That's the lie," Sarutobi continued calmly, keeping his eyes trained firmly at the hidden cell, "Hatake Kakashi would never betray Konoha,"

"Correct!" Noriko's voice crowed, "Wow! That's really awesome, Old Man! Let's play another, yeah? Yeah?"

"S-sandaime-sama," Kakashi didn't know what to say.

"How did you-" Utatane was also shaken by the accusation.

"Umino Iruka's report included Noriko's statement to him when he approached her. When asked why she killed Mizuki, her answer was 'He will betray Konoha'." He gave Kakashi a level stare, "Seeing as Kakashi is still here and no murder attempt had happened, the final statement would be the lie."

"But that does not make her other statements true," Mitokado declared pompously, "In fact, how dare she determine the future. 'Killed by your own student' indeed,"

"It may well be true," Sandaime said, looking tired all at once, "While Tsunade and Jiraiya had remained loyal though indifferent to Konoha, we do have one active traitor,"

"Missing nin Orochimaru," concluded Danzo.

"I noticed none of you disputed her second claim," Kakashi had gotten over his shock enough to comment.

"Indeed, 'I am of royal blood', well the daughter of a former kage is considered royalty in a hidden village," Sarutobi exchanged a look with his advisers, "It would seem, that we have an unexpected well spring of information, here."

Danzo snorted, "Just because she had played a parlour trick once, does not means she's omniscience,"

"Doesn't it? Well, then, let's test it again." Raising his voice, he called out, "Noriko-chan, this time let me give the statements, tell me which is the lie,"

"Okay!"

"My original teammates are still alive, one of my students is dead, the Uchiha clan is planning a revolt,"

"Hah! That's easy; all of your students are alive!"

At their incredulous faces, Sarutobi smiled grimly, "Are you ready to believe now?"

They tested her a few times, each and every time she proved eerily correct. The game had its limits though. Once they were unable to guess the real lie, 'Hyuuga Hizashi will send his twin to his death, my favourite colour is orange, and my favourite person in the whole world is Kakashi-sensei!' Noriko declared the whole game boring and refused to play anymore.

Still, they had garnered a good amount of intel from her. It may or may not prove to be correct, but that's Jiraiya's job. The information will be sent to the Counter-intel department for verification.

There were arguments, of course, between the five who knew of Noriko's apparent power. Arguments stemmed from the validity of her information, her mind, her very being. However, none could fault that her very existence is valuable to them, both as a jinchuuriki as well as a childish little girl. Now with this added ability, she is beyond valuable. Danzo and Mitokado wanted her to stay hidden underground, relaying knowledge and be trained in secret as a weapon of Konoha.

Kakashi, Sandaime and Utatane favoured a more humanistic approached, stating that such a life would screw up her mind and may well ended up with her giving out potentially faulty intel. Also, did they not observe how the child did her best not to hurt those deemed close to her? It would be best for the child to be outside, form bonds with the people of Konoha.

For once, the alliance of three broke up. Utatane wishes to see the child grow into a wise and beautiful kunoichi. There will be stipulations and rules before they let her go, of course, safe guards to ensure a smoother transition to society. Thus decided, the group once again approached the sutra covered enclosure three days later.

Sandaime nodded to Kakashi who placed a bowl of miso ramen onto a seal. The bowl disappeared. A happy shriek followed immediately from behind the heavy seals.

"Uwaah! Miso ramen! Kyaa!"

Utatane and Kakashi shared a guarded smile. They waited for the child to finish. Almost three minutes later, a happy huff, followed by a loud burp signalled the end of the small feast. A final smack of tongue against lips, Noriko warbled, "So, whatcha want?"

"What makes you think we want anything?" Kakashi intoned, perhaps unwisely.

"Duh, you put me in here cuz I got rid of that white haired freak," her tone was poisonous, startling them a bit, "You want something, just cause I'm like, tiny doesn't mean I was born yesterday, you know,"

"Noriko," Sandaime began, "How would you like to go outside again?"

"Neh? Outside? Okay, I guess," paused, "Do I get to stay with Kakashi-san again?"

"Would you like to?" they had an impression that Noriko, not quite hate, but bore a general dislike against Kakashi. Some plans were being thrown about to decide where she would stay if it turns out to be true, but perhaps there was no need?

"Kakashi-san's fine, he's nice and fun, Kakashi-sensei's the one I don't like, he likes that stupid Traitor too much,"

"Ah," Sandaime exchanged a look with the others. Noriko had shown signs of such inconsistencies before, while most of her information holds true, too many were not confirmable. Her tendency to treat Kakashi as different persons is worrying as well, but not too much.

"Well now, as mentioned before, we can let you out of your cell. However, you must abide by these rules,"

There was some mumbling from behind the curtains which sounded suspiciously like 'knew there was a catch'. Sandaime ignored it and went on, "You will not kill, burn or harm anyone, not even those you deemed a traitor unless expressedly instructed to,"

"Oooookaaayy…..."

"Do I have your word in this?"

"Yeah, yeah, sure, why not?"

"Noriko…"

"Okay, okay, I won't kill, maim or even remotely damage anyone in the village, physically at least," the grin was back in her voice, "Won't promise not to mess with their heads. Nyee hee hee,"

The Sandaime felt a vein in his forehead twitched, but did not comment on that remark. Instead, he said, "An anbu will be assigned to protect you. You will follow Weasel's guidance and not cause trouble for him,"

"Weasel? You mean Itachi?" there was a scrambling sound, "You're letting that_ Uchiha Itachi _guard me?" at this she went off into peals of laughter.

If any of the persons outside of the cell were surprised by her eerie insight or by her reaction to the assigned anbu, they said nothing. Her state of mind was worrying enough that even Mitokado agreed that she should be let out. She had been much stable before. Her profile showed that before the suicide, she had been rather outgoing and cheerful. A social creature like her would likely go crazy in a place like this. In fact, there's a marked increase of chirpiness in her replies over the days. Apparently, the more cooped up she feels, the more wacky she seems to act.

"So, you really believe this to be the best route, Sarutobi," Danzo's comment was curt in the echoing laughter that bounces off the prison walls like bells.

"Her state of mind is the most important, at the rate she's going now her behaviour is unpredictable at best and dangerous at worst,"

Danzo did not look convinced, "This would be on your head," his one exposed eye glared.

Sandaime inclined his head, accepting the challenge and responsibility of his decision, "Of course,"

000000

They are letting her out in two days.

So they said. Naruto, no, Noriko, or whoever he or she was suppose to be, stared at the patterns on the ceiling. The patterns are beautiful to his eyes, Sandaime had intertwined the protective seals around and between the containment seals with great skill that bespoke of experience. These seals told him, her more than he had to know about the Old Man's true intentions.

He shouldn't have killed Mi-, that person, but Noriko's body had been frightened, had grown physically sick at the sight of- that person. Naruto had known he was in female body, of course, had known he is no longer where he was for almost six months. Had acknowledged it, had lived with it, and had tried to change things, to make up for past wrongs and be grateful for what he is experiencing now.

However, a deep part of his psyche had never really accepted it. He answers to the name Noriko by habit, had smiled at his past mentors and made friends with his past friends had avoided those who would not live past his eighth birthday almost unconsciously. But, he had never really gave 'Noriko' much thought. She had been contented to let him live her life, until Mi-

At the Academy, her presence suddenly unfolded. Like Nagato's freaky soul eating Pein body. It consumed his mind, crushed his senses with a screaming, desperate fear. In reaction, Naruto lashed out against the source of their fear. It was a miracle how Sakura survived that attack, she had been so near, if she had been just half a head taller, had not been crouching in concern…

That person burned under their combine hate. Noriko had wanted to scream and scream, to burn and burn, so Naruto had let her. When Iruka-sensei stepped into their line of sight, Noriko had wanted to burn him as well, to burn all men with white hair and lying kind faces and soft dangerous voices. Naruto couldn't let her, not Iruka-sensei. So he had reached out with his chakra and snuffed her voice out. Iruka-sensei's voice reached his head from a faraway place, the tone registered first. Iruka-sensei was upset and scared, and he couldn't blame him.

Then he remembered. Mi- that person had hurt Iruka-sensei before, had hurt him extra more because they had been friends. Naruto was sorry for Iruka-sensei, but what is done is done. He knew Iruka-sensei will be angry so he said he was sorry. Not for killing Mi- that person, but for hurting Iruka-sensei. But, Naruto was hurt too, Noriko was gone now, but in that instant their chakra touched, Noriko was now in Naruto, or was it Naruto was now fully in Noriko?

It doesn't matter now because they are now together in one body and with the stupid fox breathing down their necks it is getting rather crowded. The mixed up memories were also such a pain to sort out that Noriko, Naruto was actually grateful that the anbu stuffed them into this cell to sort out their thoughts. It had not been easy, and it had been a little depressing but it was better than doing nothing and going slowly out of his mind.

Naruto had learned patience from numerous waiting missions, but not that much. So when the Sandaime and the goons from hell and stupid Kakashi came to visit, he had spewed a bunch of stupid information to see how they would react. It was fun and stupid and few answers hit too close to home and he promised himself to be more careful and to act crazy is better than going really crazy and wondered if he even knew the difference anymore.


	7. Trust, issues and conclusions

Previously in Her Name Was Noriko

_Naruto had learned patience from numerous waiting missions, but not that much. So when the Sandaime and the goons from hell and stupid Kakashi came to visit, he had spewed a bunch of stupid information to see how they would react. It was fun and stupid and few answers hit too close to home and he promised himself to be more careful and to act crazy is better than going really crazy and wondered if he even knew the difference anymore._

And so the story continues. Lots of love from KT!

The Container was smiling at him.

Uchiha Itachi is familiar with all kinds of smiles. The proud paternal kind bestowed by his father and other older clansmen. The charming, simpering kind girls tend to give to geniuses. The worried motherly wobble that showed when Mikoto saw him back, alive after a mission, the sweet adoring gaze of his brother, the envious grimace of his peers in age. After all, he had no real peers save perhaps Hatake Kakashi who is now close to his twenties.

He understood the reason for having a guard on the Container, after the… incident at the Academy. People will be more reassured to know there's a twenty-four hour guard on the monster. That he is also there to ensure the safety of Uzumaki Noriko went without saying. No, really, he could have done without the detailed description from Kakashi-sempai on what would happen to him and his family jewels if he were to lapse on his job.

They are at the Hatake residence, and he was now seeing the Container face to face for the first time. Thick black lines scored her cheeks where the thin whisker marks had been. The child was about Sasuke's age, maybe a little younger. It skipped up to Itachi's anbu form and grinned.

"Hi, Itachi!"

Itachi did not quite glare at his sempai. Though Kakashi did looked a little awkward in his jounin garb as he waved his hand at them, "Now, now, Noriko, we've talked about this. No names when an anbu is on duty,"

Noriko points at Itachi's mask, "Itachi,"

For a moment, both men sweat-dropped at the obvious weasel mask. Kakashi then stood up, "Wait here," he told them both and took off.

Noriko blinked her one blue eye at Itachi who stared warily at the patch covering her left eye. He had heard rumours about what is behind that patch and while he is an anbu, and a kickass one at that, he had no intention of provoking a replay of the Incident. Although, he is a little curious about how that fire would measure up against Amateresu…

"Hah! Found it," Kakashi entered the living room with something in his hand. It was an anbu mask. It was Kakashi's Hound mask.

With an inward sigh, Itachi reached for the mask, he supposed it's for the best. Faster than the eye could see, Itachi switched masks in the time it took for Noriko to blink. For a moment, Noriko pouted. Then, grinning unrepentantly, she points at Itachi's new mask.

"Doggy!"

"…"

Who knows what the next moment would bring if Kakashi had not chosen that time to look up suddenly. Itachi, glad of an excuse to ignore the 'Doggy' remark stood at attention. He is an Uchiha and a genius, but this is still the Hatake compound and his former captain is bound to have numerous wards surrounding the place.

"Kakashi-san?"

"Hold up," Kakashi's alert posture slumped back to its slack form, "we have a visitor," and proceeded to walk away from the room leaving Itachi with the… Thing.

"So… what incredible jutsu do you know?" the Thing asked with a grin.

Kami-sama, Sasuke was never this forward, and certainly never towards an anbu member. Perhaps, if he were to raise his killing intent a little, just a little bit…

Small pattering of sounds, loud in a shinobi compound, thundered in. Itachi noticed the smile on the Thing's face became a bit fixed.

"NORIKO-CHAN!" a screech roared through Kakashi's living room. Presently a Pink Thing emerged, with Kakashi at its heels.

Itachi watched with half detachment as Noriko stiffened for a moment before slacking her face into a cheerful grin and turned to greet the Pink Thing.

"Hiya, Sakura-chan,"

"Noriko!" the Pink Thing, presumably 'Sakura-chan' took a flying leap and grabbed Noriko by the neck.

Now, Itachi is all about being professional. Not Uchiha professional, mind you, but good ninja professional. What's the difference you ask? Well, for one thing, a good ninja always listens to his hokage and trust him to make the best decision for the benefit of Konoha. An Uchiha professional would do his best to ensure that EVERYONE knows that he could complete the same job faster, more efficiently and look cool while doing it.

Really, Itachi wondered when the Uchiha clan had degenerated to make 'cool' one of its criteria in mission completion. Keeping to the shadows, he watched the two little girls interact. The pink one, Sakura, had kept her grip on Noriko for a long while, making little sniffling noises and rubbing her head under Noriko's chin. Noriko looked a little uncomfortable, but was obligingly patting Sakura's back, trying to be comforting.

_A ninja should not show emotions._

It is disconcerting, to see the heavily marked face contorted in sympathy for the small civilian before it. When Fugaku, the Clan Head had heard about his present duty, the man had thrown a small fit about 'demotions', 'demons' and 'Uchiha'. Then, the idea of swaying the demon to the side of the Uchiha took root, and he was suddenly pleased by the prospect. Enough to praise Itachi for 'obtaining' this mission for the good of the clan, never mind that the Hokage was the one who had given him the duty just yesterday evening. A proper protection detail for the Container would be difficult to form due to various prejudices and the difficulty in policing other people's real thoughts and intentions. So Sarutobi had sent his most trusted and controversial anbu member as a personal body guard for Noriko. While an Anbu's identity is supposed to be a secret, there aren't that many that stood just past four foot tall, not many made anbu at thirteen after all.

Officially, his presence is to deter the Container from causing havoc among the general populace. His actual duty is to observe one Uzumaki Noriko, record any and all unusual statements made by her, and to discourage any and all attempts at intimidating her. The final task was actually for the benefit of the general public. Since, as demonstrated, Noriko is more than well equipped to protect herself and kill when the need arises.

Sakura's sobbing had decreased enough to pull back, and gasped at Noriko's face. Belatedly, Itachi recalled that Noriko had been walking around with her face covered, much like Kakashi. As he watched, Noriko laughed, awkwardly scrubbing the back of her head. For a moment, Sakura wrung her hands in anxiousness, keeping her eyes on her feet.

"I-I'm sorry!" she suddenly burst out, still looking at the floor, "I-I shouldn't have look, _I'm sorry!_" she seemed near to tears again. Her voice watery and thick.

"Maa, Sakura-chan," Surprisingly, it was Kakashi who intervened, "It's fine," he placed a hand on her head and turned it up, only to frown at Sakura's stubbornly scrunched up eyes, "You can look, you know, it's just a face."

Slowly, carefully, Sakura opened her eyes. There, smiling in front of her with only a quarter of their face hidden (the left eye) were Kakashi-san and Noriko-chan. Tenderly, wobbly, she smiled back.

"You're right. It's just a face,"

000000

Much to Kakashi's surprise, Noriko was allowed to return to the Academy. He had been quite apprehensive about letting Noriko walk out in the open, let alone getting into a place where she had committed the then murder. It seemed that they did manage to find evidence that pointed towards Touji Mizuki's double dealings with Iwa and Orochimaru. One of Noriko's sing-song statements during their Two-Truths-One-Lie games had led the hokage towards the right direction. Kakashi couldn't quite read Noriko's face when informed that she would be joining Sakura in Suzume-sensei's class, her quiet steps beside him suggested apprehension.

Awkwardly, Kakashi patted the short fuzz, her head barely reached his weapons pouch. "It will be alright, Noriko-chan," he smiled down at her upturn face, this time it was hidden behind a cherry blossom scarf, "Iruka-sensei will be there,"

If anything, her little frown grew.

"I've spoken to him," Kakashi tried to reassure her, "He's worried about you,"

The soft steps stopped abruptly. Kakashi paused as well and looked down. The shadow following them went still. Slowly, carefully, Noriko looked left, then right. Kakashi looked as well. He had not sensed anything amiss, but then, he was not the one with the super precognition mind. Sandaime and Utatane had raided the Konoha library carefully, looking up anything that remotely resembled Noriko's apparent power. Danzo had his own sources of course, and so did Mitokado.

Whenever Kakashi thought of the first time she played that riddle 'game' with them, chills ran down his back. Only the worst type of shinobi would turn against one of their own. Loyalty is bred into their bones, and unless something drastic happen, that loyalty will be held until death. For a society that trades in deceit, half-truths and death, that loyalty is the only stable thing in their world. Even Danzo is loyal to Konoha and would gladly destroy any traitors to her.

Together, they all agreed that it is some kind of predictive power, a potentially useful and deadly weapon against their enemies. There are some arguments about how she may have acquired this 'talent' and how best to weld it to Konoha's best advantage, but there is no doubt that it is a power that must be kept secret from the general populace.

Which is why Kakashi and Itachi, as the elites of Konoha, are now responsible for watching over her and taking note of her behaviour. Not even Itachi knew about the special incentive that had induced the protection detail. How could he when both the details of her parentage as well as her jinchuuriki status were big enough reasons in of themselves to keep a keen eye on her?

Therefore, when Noriko pause her steps in the middle of the road, Kakashi cast a wary eye around them. Is Noriko going to point out another 'traitor'?

"Kakashi-san,"

"Yes, Noriko-chan?" Kakashi crouched before the small person. He had never been accused of being a traitor in his life, not to his face at least. Not even when his father commit seppuku had the hint of betrayal stained his existence. That Noriko so casually questioned his loyalty in a _game_ had rattled him beyond all else, if Sandaime hadn't guessed correctly what was going on…

"Do you like me?" the blue eye was solemn. There was no hint of the overly cheerful persona they had encountered in the dark cells.

Kakashi frowned inwardly, is this another test? When Noriko was at the cell, she had a habit of blurting out the oddest questions at the weirdest time. Whenever they gave a 'wrong' answer, she would immediately clam up and refused to speak until the next day.

"Aa," Kakashi scratched his head awkwardly, how to answer this? "Of course I like you, Noriko-chan," his eyes scrunched up defensively, almost afraid of her reply.

She continued to stare gravely at him.

Kakashi resisted the urge to fidget.

"Do you like me better then Sakura-chan?"

"Of course I like you better," that one was easy, taking a chance he crouched down and ruffled her hair, "You're my Precious Peaches, remember?"

Noriko ducked and squinted her eye, only peering up when Kakashi stop manhandling her short hair.

"Will you always like me better than the Traitor?" she was not looking at him. Instead her eye was tracking the movements of something behind him.

Assuming a casual stance, Kakashi tilted his head just so. The inflexion in her voice was unmistakable, this had to be the 'traitor' she refuses to name. The one she claimed 'Kakashi-sensei' had favoured.

A small hand touched his chin, halting his attempt to look at this 'traitor'. Noriko gazed at him directly, "Will you carry me to school, Kakashi-san?"

"Ah?" that question came out of nowhere, "Eh, what?"

In response, Noriko merely step closer and put her arms around his neck, pressing her cheek against his clothed face. For a while, Kakashi twitched his fingers, not quite sure where to put them. Fortunately his genius mind saved him by providing visuals of how regular civilian parents sometimes held their children. Feeling a little awkward, Kakashi placed one palm against Noriko's bottom, lift her up and braced the other hand against her back. For a moment, Kakashi contemplate the awkwardness of the position, how it exposes his back and kept his hands full, unable to put up a proper defence in case of an attack.

It was a very impractical hold, the piggy back would actually serve better, leaving his hands free for jutsu and hand to hand combat. Kakashi did not swallow. With Noriko so near to his jugular, she would feel it if his adam's apple move. Breathing evenly, Kakashi made his way to the Academy, ignoring the eyes on his back. Perhaps, he thought, this is a test of trust.

000000

Sandaime hokage watched the retreating back of the Copy-nin through his viewing crystal carefully. Specifically, he was watching the small face that looked just a little bit haunted, and a little bit more shadowed than before. Unnerved, Sarutobi had traced the trajectory of her gaze and was shocked, but yet not shocked to find little Sasuke to be the target of her not-glare.

Noriko had spoken a few times about a 'Traitor' favoured by 'Kakashi-sensei' in a voice that was both vehement and jealous. Sarutobi is sure that she had not intended to reveal that bit of information. However, the child is young and, despite her precognitive ability, not omnipotent. Both brands of jealousy and vehemence were no stranger to him, he had been a teacher once before, and had seen it in spades in Jiraiya when he was young, in hundreds of genin, pre-genin and some chuunin.

Ninjas are human as well. Though many tried to forget it, their true nature eventually get out, for better or worse. And favouritism is but one of the few human traits that reared its head every now and then, giving rise to jealousy and the need to prove oneself and become the 'favourite' of the person in authority.

Thus, Sandaime had concluded (correctly) that Noriko had both been jealous and resentful of the Uchiha child at some point and perhaps against Kakashi as well. He deduced (not so correctly) that Noriko's vision of the future is so realistic that it must have felt like she had actually lived through it and developed all kinds of mental blocks and scarring from it. His first clue was how Noriko's callous statement on Kakashi in her first 'game' with them. Even as a joke, ninjas do not mess around with claims of betrayal. It had been inconsistent with how Noriko had been treating Kakashi, with a cheerful tenderness that defies even Minami's crustiness.

So, either her newly acquired visions had soured her disposition towards the people around her, or that the meeting with Mizuki had triggered her insecurities enough to lash out at those who would harm the village. Her scope of knowledge is also incredibly extensive, going deep into the structures of the village and a little beyond, making Sarutobi believe that her ability to perceive the future goes beyond flashes of visions and closer to actual experience. Her decision to befriend certain people and spurn others also supported this theory. Previous records showed that Noriko had no more contact with Sakura and Iruka then others within the Academy, her decision to warm up to these two persons were also inconsistent with her rather introvert and cautious treatment of other people. Dr. Minami not included.

As he leaned back against his chair, Sarutobi thought about this anomaly and wondered what made the little girl made such an exception with the grumpy doctor. The man was a mean creature and was liked by nobody at all. Yet, Noriko had taken to him of all people. The old hokage took an extra drag from his pipe and leaned back to ponder upon the possible reasons for this behaviour. Noriko is a valuable commodity to Konoha as a weapon and a well spring of information. Thus, it is important for them monitor her behaviour and social interaction as much as they could.

This includes looking into the way she behaves around people and take active measures around people she's uneasy with.

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Their class teacher is Suzume-sensei, a sharp-eyed woman with a strong voice. Naruto recognised her expression, but not her face. His child's memory had lumped all men and women who had ever cursed his existence with the same expression, a writhing mass of people with the same faces. He had recurring nightmares for many years about running away from these people. Where the Uchiha had a face to his nightmares, Naruto had bodies, many bodies seething with resentment, silence and _intent_. It was this intent that he feared then. The reason why he could jump head first into all kinds of troubling situations was because no matter how much danger was involved, how many enemies. Naruto could count on them being on a grand scheme of things that features mostly _themselves_ and that they are there to kill you because it was a goddamned _job_ that puts ramen on the table that you are the enemy only because you are _in the way_.

Of course, for people like the Yellow Flash, the Copy Nin and the Sannin, there are people who actually hated them, wanted them dead _because_. At age five Naruto was too young, psychologically too vulnerable to be hated that way but it happened anyway and he was already damaged when Team 7 was formed and the only undamaged person in the team went out of her way to destroy him further. Only he was too damaged already. It was like taking a spritz bottle to a person already wading in a pool of hatred. Too wet, too long and too cold to know any better.

Naruto knew he is not quite sane anymore. Not really, not when reality comes in and attacked him in an army of Uchiha clones. Clones of sons and daughters of bitches spawned by Kabuto's stolen semen specimen. The Uchiha was no longer human in his mind. Rabid animals with one _intent_ only.

The mask hid his thoughts, but even so he felt Sakura touch Noriko's book and was mildly surprised to see the edge of the paper smouldering a little from his intense thought processes. Naruto blinked once and was gratified to see the fire put itself out. He touched the blackened bit of the paper and thought how ironic it is for him to have the control of fire now when he had envied _That_ _Traitor_ for it those many years. A natural wind affinity from his parents, fire from the tailed beast, with metal and doton element that could be acquired with training as they are naturally available to those born of flesh and blood. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, and all that kind of crap.

A smirk edged Noriko's lips.

_Who's special now?_

It is a good thing the Traitor was not in the classroom. Otherwise Naruto might be tempted to try out his new found element on that bird nest hair.

Class is boring, more so than usual since he actually knew all these information already, he had no idea how really _basic_, the basics taught at the academy. He never gave much thought about that before, he had struggled so much in class, had always been ten steps behind everyone, or so it had seemed. Always slow always inadequate. School had never given him much in ways of good memories. He had always been struggling, in some ways or other, trying to learn how to control chakra, trying to master elemental chakra, the nature's energy, learning the politics of the village and other powers around them (thank goodness for Gaara), research ways to counter the Sharingan, develop better tracking systems, learn how to send ninja to their deaths with a 'good luck' and 'do your best for the fucking village' in their kami be damned faces.

Then one day, he had just... stopped.

It was his fortieth year as the hokage and one day he just looked around and wondered just who the hell were these people around him and just... walked out. He didn't want to struggle anymore. He felt no hate, no happiness, no amusement. He had no wife no children, no _legacy_. There had been nothing of himself in Konoha but a bloody big stone face that didn't looked like him anyway. He had been 'The Rokudaime', Naruto was gone. There were no friends to remember him, no enemies to remember the incompetent brat he was before he became something to be feared.

Drinking was a pretty expensive hobby, considering the amount it takes to make him even slightly tipsy, so he had walked instead. Roaming from village to wilderness to towns and to the occasional cities, only stopping to rest when he wanted to, or when the odd Uchiha attacked him. Curiously enough, those red eyed freaks stopped targeting Konoha and started coming after him instead. Perhaps he should have left long ago. There were spats of fights among mercenary ninjas who wish to earn their fortune by coming after the 'Rokudaime'. Even the other kage called him that. The Rokudaime. As if he had sprung out from a rock fully formed as a kage and never made the painful process of growing up, learning, struggling and seeing all his friends dead and gone.

Now he is Noriko, at least that's a name. And the kage of the village is still Sarutobi, the Uchiha clan still exist in konoha and not some incubator system somewhere set up by Orochi-Kabuto-Sakura clone thing. If Itachi ever gets around wiping out the damned clan, he'd make sure it is a real massacre with no loose ends.

**Author's Notes**

**Let me anticipate the questions:**

**Why did Kakashi let Sakura see his face so easily?**

**Eh, well, Kakashi wants Noriko to have a relatively normal life. He realized that Sakura felt awkward about Noriko's face and maybe about his face and really, I believed the real reason why Kakashi never lets anyone sees his face in canon is because he enjoys messing with their heads. Here, there is more than his pride and love of poking fun happening around, plus he wanted Noriko's trust. Since Noriko seems to value Sakura, Kakashi decides to imitate her by lowering his mask as well.**

**Why did Naruto/Noriko dislike 'Kakashi-sensei'?**

**(SPOILER ALERT!)**

**I'm working from canon where Kakashi had just been revived by Pein. After overhearing Naruto talking about having met the fourth, Kakashi commented that fathers often had something to say to their sons and that was when Naruto realizes that Kakashi knew who his father was. Naruto had this really stunned and hesitant look on his face that had never appeared before and I chose to interpret this look as betrayal. The catalyst of 'He lied to me! Bastard! How could he-' sort of thinking that would forever change their relationship.**

**This is an earlier question, but I thought I'd address it here anyway.**

**How come your female Uchiha have so many different names? Was it a typo mistake?**

**The female Uchiha all came with different names because Naruto couldn't keep them straight and had been plagued by many, many Uchiha over the years. The names all started with M because, somehow the names with M got stuck in his head. It was a foreshadowing of what Naruto's mental health was like. He couldn't keep anything straight in his head (hence the changing names), but somehow a degree of sanity still remains (which was why despite all the different names, they all started with M). So, it's like he's mostly insane, but still mentally capable of pretending to appear sane.**


	8. Academy

**Ah, so we now see Noriko-chan at the Academy.**

Sakura observes her friend carefully from the fringes of her hair. Noriko had stared at her books so hard that it caught fire, literally. Luckily no one had noticed and the fire was put out quickly. She had been ecstatic about having her friend here, next to her in class, but Noriko's silence is beginning to get worrisome. She didn't know how to fix this. Presently, Suzume-sensei announces that it is time to leave the classroom for the fields to pick flowers for their flower arranging class. Sakura perks up, perhaps a little fresh air and a change of scenery would help.

As the girls filed out in a somewhat orderly manner, the more brutish of the girls slouching with hands stuck in their pockets muttering about 'useless girly tricks', Noriko remain seated, clearly lost in thoughts. Hesitantly, Sakura touches her elbow and was rewarded with a slow blink and a puzzled glance. For some reason, her face felt hot.

"Um, we're suppose to go outside now,"

Something stirred and shuddered in that one slitted eye, "Eh?"

"Um, Suzume-sensei we're to go out and pick flowers,"

"...flowers..."

"For the flower arrangement, and we need to learn the names of flowers too and the messages behind them and stuff," Sakura finished hesitantly.

The eye blinked once, slowly, "Uh-huh, un," there were no further words, but under the glare of Suzume-sensei, Noriko rose slowly out of her chair and is half pushed, half shuffled towards the doorway, following the line of girls to the field.

Once outside, Sakura dart anxious glances at her friend. Is she alright? Should she get Kakashi-san? She is in the middle of worrying how to tell Suzume-sensei that they might need to contact Kakashi-san when Noriko suddenly flops onto her front in a field of white daisies. There is a giggling sound and before she knew it, Noriko starts rolling around in the flowers like a puppy and squishing the flowers like a rolling pin. There were cries of outrage from the teacher, but Sakura couldn't really hear the words. Next thing she knew Noriko is up, covered in grass stains and a crushed flower stuck in her hair and is lazily zoning out Suzume-sensei's scoldings.

"...and you, Sakura!"

"Yes, ma'am!" Sakura snaps into attention instinctively.

"Keep your... _friend_ in line," her voice dripping with poison, "Don't let her run off like that, she's your responsibility!"

Sakura felt tears pricking behind her eyes, she didn't like being scolded, her parents rarely scolded her, nor do they need to. Sakura is smart, obedient and competent. But here, in the ninja world all her smarts meant nothing, she had no standing, her one friend is a freak and-

"Saa, don't take it out on Sakura-chan," a slow voice rumbles. The tone was polite, if a little vague as if the speaker wasn't even paying attention, "I'll be good, ne?"

Noriko's body language is casual, unthreatening, her eye smiling, but even so the teacher took a step back. The hairs at the back of Sakura's neck felt itchy and she had to resist the urge to scratch at them.

Suzume-sensei's eyes looked a little wild, "Y-you had better not be trouble," she darts a gaze to the trees and back at Noriko.

Noriko waves a hand at the line of trees where Suzume-sensei had looked, "Yeah, yeah, I'll be good, we just need to pick flowers, yeah?"

"Don't make trouble," was Suzume-sensei's last remark before she walks away to where Ino and a number of girls were fighting among themselves.

It wasn't until she got home that Sakura realizes that Suzume-sensei never fully turned her back on Noriko.

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The Uzumaki child disturbs Suzume at the most instinctual level. The only thing that appeases that concern is the knowledge that an anbu had been specially assigned to trail her every day.

Not that Noriko really did anything to increase or assuage that worry. She mostly kept to herself, staring into space during lectures and wondering off on her own during outdoor lessons. Sometimes, she is trailed by that little pink headed girl. Suzume had tried to curb the wondering behaviour at first. Because not having all her kids within her visual range runs havoc with her internal alarm bells. However, when it became apparent that Noriko only wonders off once she had finished her assigned task, and then only after she had helped Sakura and some of the other girls that may have asked for her assistance. Not that there were many, she wasn't a popular girl after all.

At any rate, she would always return a few minutes before Suzume calls the class in, therefore not creating a problem when it comes to keeping class count. Other times, instead of wondering off, Noriko would simply flop onto a grassy patch of floor and just snooze. When the other girls complained, Suzume is at least pleased to be able to point out that Noriko had already done all her exercises perfectly and unless they could do the same thing please desist with the complaints.

Once, Suzume sent a letter to Hatake Kakashi, informing him that Noriko is more than qualified for a higher level class and could he please sign this form to authorize the upgrade? The Copy Nin had appeared at her office the very next day with a sheepish look and explained that the Sandaime had actually forbidden him from letting Noriko skip her class level unless her social skills improved. Seeing the increasingly odd behaviour in Noriko, Suzume had very little hopes of seeing that happening any time soon...

Today is an outdoors class, a lesson in foraging. Baskets in hand, or in Noriko's case, balanced precariously on her head, the kunoichi in training ventured just a little deeper into the woods of Konoha. Though, a native Konohan may scoff at the word 'wood' for the sparse number of trees found in the little clearing.

The girls are supposed to forage for edible plants and herbs. The classroom work for identifying various types of useful foliage had been done two days earlier, allowing the information to soak in their brain or be forgotten completely. So far, most of the girls took it as a chance to be children, running around playing tag and gathering flowers instead of herbs. Only Ino, Sakura and Hinata were serious about gathering the required herbs. Noriko busied herself filling her basket with water cress, a type of wild herb that looked like large clover plants. Possibly for the evening's dinner, thought Suzume with a cautious sort of amusement.

The semi-controlled chaos was soon interrupted by something unexpected. Something brown and swift zipped into the clearing. It is a brown fox cub. It barrelled carelessly from beyond the long grasses towards the girls. It is a cute little thing, as baby animals tend to be. Its snout is still short, sweet little teeth sharp behind a happy lolling tongue. Suzume is immediately suspicious. The thing barked and yipped playfully, nearby girls cooed and tried to coax the brown thing to them. It dodged past grasping hands, running full tilt for Noriko, Suzume realized with some measure of alarm.

A summon animal? A demon? Suzume is immediately alert, her fingers filled with senbon needles, ready to defend, to fight-

A pained yelp startled her. The little brown fox is rolling away from Noriko, barking and whimpering in turns. Several girls surrounded them to watch the spectacle, Suzume herself is striding forward.

"Sensei!" someone shrieked, "Noriko-baka kicked it! She kicked the little foxy!"

"It's cruel!"

"Mean!"

A cold feeling crowded up her throat. What?

The brown thing whimpered, one of its legs lifted from the ground. The bile in her throat lessened at the sight. It is a pitiful looking thing. Not at all like the pretty red and white foxes that sometimes ran in the woods. She almost didn't dare to look at Noriko, but duty insisted. There is an unreadable look in Noriko's eye, a lazy speculating gleam that reminded Suzume of the famous Copy Nin. One by one, the girls fell silent under the subtle killing intent. Only the whimpering of the fox cub broke the silence. Easily, lazily, Noriko ambles forward. The cub's yips grew excited, happy, thought Suzume in sick horror. It didn't know that Noriko intends to kill it.

What happens next blurred in Suzume's mind. Her own reaction shocked herself. Suzume always had a special sensitivity towards chakra. Unfortunately, her other skills did not quite qualify her for field work, let alone in becoming a hunter nin. Nevertheless, it is sharp enough for the school masters to qualify her to work with children as her chakra sensitivity made it possible to work with children and spot trouble through chakra detection alone.

It was one of the reasons Noriko is placed in her class.

A thin edge of red outlined Noriko's palm, almost invisible to the eye. The chopping motion is done without hesitation. A clean strike targeting the victim's throat. Suzume's body moved without her permission.

The fox cub whined under her arm. There is a three inch deep gauge in the dirt where the animal had been lying on. Suzume noted Sakura's startled gasp as well as the reactions from all the other girls. They were all shocked and appalled by the senseless display of violence, and no wonder, these are peace time children at the gentle age of seven or eight. Somehow, Suzume doubted that an eight year old Kakashi would have similar reactions.

Noriko straightened casually from her slightly crouched position, wiping her hand against her pants. One of the trees above them acquired an additional shadow and Suzume drew strength from the knowledge that the anbu watching Noriko is nearby.

The animal in her arms pants happily, oblivious to how close its brush with death had been. Suzume isn't quite sure how to deal with this, but deal with it she must, perhaps she could start off with simple questions...

"Why did you do it, Noriko?" her voice was kept calm and steady by force.

Noriko shrugged, "It's just a dirty useless animal,"

The animal yelped, Suzume had accidentally squeezed it too hard. Carefully, she loosened her hold. "Why would you think that, Noriko?" she didn't really want to know, but this is a potentially dangerous creature in her classroom, and it is her duty as a ninja to find out all she could about it.

The girl absently contemplates the overhanging branches above them. She is too young to even begin to know how to detect hidden ninjas, especially those in anbu level, she couldn't! Suzume is busy going through all the things Noriko shouldn't know when the sensation of being watched prick up her back. Her eyes snapped into focus against the yellow slitted eye of her most dangerous student. The Hatake ward. Suddenly, all kinds of information fell into place. The foul chakra last year, the disappearance of one of the Academy's pre-genin, Hatake's sudden announcement of a new ward and Noriko's fox like eye...

Her hands shook, she took a step back, the little fox whined from being squeezed so tightly in her arms again. Then suddenly, the fox was gone and Suzume almost stumbles back from the lack of weight in her arms and there is Noriko holding the little cub disdainfully by the scruff of its neck. There was a flash of sharp light and suddenly the fox was running for the forest on all four legs, yelping pitifully with its tail between its legs.

Noriko picks up her basket of water cress and starts for the classroom. Sakura hesitates for a moment before scampering after her. It took Suzume less than half a minute to recover, but she is grateful that the elite shadow did not move from the branches until she manages to get herself together and had the girls' attention again.

So, the girl is that jinchuuriki. Her hands still shook whenever she thought of that foul chakra and the shadow that had been painted over in front of classroom B-3 and wonders how she is going to survive the rest of the year with that monster in her classroom.

000000

The sparing session for academy students approached all too quickly for Suzume-sensei. It is an interclass activity and she wonders how Noriko is going to react with children from other classes. Noriko is the enigma of the school. The death of Mizuki is mostly hushed up by the authorities, but there is no way to silence something that had happened in front of so many witnesses. She had seen the way other teachers poke curious heads over to look at the child with most of her face hidden.

Students from other classes are children of ninja, and knew the idea of death and secrecy peripherally. Even those not of a clan knew. This is a ninja village after all. Whispers followed Noriko as well as those who chose to follow her. Cynically, Suzume wondered what Hiashi thought of his oldest daughter creeping after the jinchuuriki for crumbs of affections and approval.

She had tried to put it off, but sparing between classes is something of a tradition at the Academy. It is also one of the unofficial ways for teachers to show off how much their students had progressed. Usually the class with the most wins would be recognised as the elite by ninja families and its teachers be sought of by clan leaders. The class with the poorest showing are generally given the misfits and 'trouble' students.

However, Suzume could care less about class ranking and just hope that she and the rest of the student population survive the lesson. There is an Uchiha in one of the classes. Suzume had overheard him parroting the words of his clan about the thieving Hatakes and knew that the child would try to personally challenge Noriko. The glint in the Uchiha's eyes as well as the superior smirk of his sensei that made the possibility of him treating this like a regular spar rather than a clan challenge grows dimmer by the second. Suzume itched to be anywhere but here.

The spars had been pre-arranged. Some of them were over as soon as it had begun, others dragged along as the pre-genin sized up their opponents warily. When it is Noriko's turn everyone, including teachers, students, janitors and jounins lounging in trees with too much time on their hands perked up with interest.

"Uzumaki Noriko vs Nara Shikamaru," the assistant teacher, Umino Iruka, declared clearly.

Suzume almost smiled when her sharp ears caught the muttered 'troublesome' as the genin shuffles forward. The Naras are famous for two things, their intellect as well as their apathy. Among all the boys, Shikamaru would be the one least likely to provoke a serious confrontation. She could almost feel the marked disappointment among the spectators against this match up.

"Uzumaki Noriko, please step forward,"

Suzume blinked at the extra command. Odd, why did... Oh, there's Noriko, busily shoving the ever present brown fox into Sakura's basket. The animal had shown up again, and no matter what everyone did, sort of killing the fox, nothing seemed to prevent it from tailing Noriko everywhere. Sakura had taken to dragging a large basket with a lock on it to stuff the fox in just to keep it out of Noriko's hair. Apparently it likes to chew on the fluffy red and yellow spikes. With the lock finally secure and Hinata sitting firmly on top of the sturdy rattan container, Noriko stepped forward to face her yawning opponent.

They faced each other across the fighting mat, each with a loose pose and at least one hand stuck in their respective pockets. The tension rose with every second. Finally, just when Suzume thought she would just scream from the inaction, the Nara kid shifted his pose.

He removed one hand from his pocket and raised it up near jaw level. With his palm facing outward, he opened his mouth.

"I quit,"

Suzume did scream then. So did various other spectators so her little shriek was actually drowned by the cacophony, especially when assistant teacher Umino Iruka bellowed for explanation. The Nara boy merely shrugged, "We did a will power battle and I lost," he said, shuffling out of the battle area, "better luck next time I guess,"

There was a stupefied silence following his explanation..

His way was blocked, not by Umino Iruka or any other instructors in the area as Suzume might have hoped, but by Uchiha Sasuke. To his credit, the Nara child merely looked bored. He did not try to push past the Uchiha, nor did he move away, his manner when confronting the clearly irritated boy was calm, bored and uninterested.

Then, the Uchiha smirked, "Too much of a coward to face a girl, Nara?"

"Eh, whatever," said Nara waved his hand dismissively, "women are troublesome," he spared one lazy glance at the Uchiha, "you had better be careful," with that final cryptic remark he shuffled to the side and joined his fat friend on the sidelines.

The Uchiha remained where he is, prideful and contemptuous, "Sensei! I will take his place to fight Uzumaki!"

Umino frowned, "Well now, I don't think that's appropriate, you're scheduled for a fight next-"

"Then I'll fight both opponents," he declared stubbornly. Stupidly, thought Suzume. She muttered darkly to herself, her mind busily penning letter to Uchiha Fugaku, explaining why the boy's injuries had nothing to do with her.

"Sasuke-kun," begin Umino, "I really don't think-"

"I'm an Uchiha," declared the boy. From the corner of her eye, Suzume thought she saw Noriko shifted her weight. It could be a trick of light, she couldn't be sure.

"Aw, let him fight," the boy's class teacher grandly stated. Suzume immediately begin a letter to the hokage explaining why _this_ man's injuries had nothing to do with her either.

"Well..." Umino hesitate, it is his job as the mediator of the interclass sparring contest to enforce the rules and to keep an eye out for problems. However, he is still the most junior of the teaching staffs and technically had to concede to more senior staffs.

"Relax, I'll take all the responsibility, yeah? Let the kids fight, should be interesting stuff," the sensei's large jowls stretched around his grin.

Tokubo-sensei, decides Suzume as she placed finishing touches to her letter, is an idiot. Still Umino hesitates, smart kid, thought Suzume grudgingly. The boy would probably outlive all of them. In the end, the decision was taken out of their hands. The Uchiha boy, impatient for action, feint to the left, out of Umino's reach and charged with a fist cocked back towards Noriko.

The blow landed solidly against Noriko's blind side. Suzume thought she heard Sakura gasped. For a moment, Noriko seemed to be suspended in the air, body listing from the force of the blow, the Uchiha smirking at his easy victory. Then, without warning, Noriko flexed her body into a sweeping kick, taking out the Uchiha by his legs. The anbu shimmered next to them, only to be blast aside by a sudden explosion of foul chakra. Noriko followed up with the attack as though the anbu did not exist. She leapt towards the Uchiha's falling form, right arm cocked back slightly, left hand extended to accelerate the boy's impact against the ground. When her fist landed, it felt like something had exploded.

The anbu charged past Suzume with incredible speed, but it was too late, too late! Screamed Suzume's mind. The anbu lifted Noriko bodily away by the back of her shirt, Suzume craned her neck, expecting to see a smashed head, blood, fire, anything but a dazed and frightened little boy with a thin graze on his left cheek and a tiny fist shape hole next to his head. Cracks formed from the hole like a star burst. Seeing the boy still more or less intact, the anbu set the girl roughly down at the far end of the mat and rushed to check on the boy's condition.

Beside Suzume, Tokubo-sensei is currently sweating like it was midsummer in Konoha, lungs bellowing as though he's just been chased down by enemy ninja. Oh, yeah, he'd said he'd take all responsibility for Uchiha fighting Noriko. Hah, the idiot, thought Suzume half hysterically.

It took a while for the boy to regain his senses. Soon he was shaking and clinging to the anbu, there were no tears yet, but Suzume is sure they would come as soon as he's safely at home. They were ninja after all. Noriko was studying her fist, dusting off minute dusts as the anbu prepared to send the Uchiha to the hospital. She looked up and waved.

"Bye Uchiha-baka, next time I'll make sure not to miss, yeah?" she chirped.

That did not go well at all.


	9. Much Ado About Uchihas

**Much Ado About Uchihas**

"I wish to submit a formal resignation from my current mission," Anbu Weasel said evenly.

Sandaime puffed on his pipe, "Is that so?" he'd heard about the incident between Sasuke and Noriko of course.

Too many people had been just a bit eager to bend his ear over the latest development of the seven year old killer. Little geniuses fascinate, and in certain cases, frighten some people. A lot of the older clans within the village had been keeping a keen eye on Noriko's development. Many of them are just waiting for a chance to discredit Kakashi and take over the Noriko's upbringing for their own gain. The chance to have a genius, especially a female genius with no apparent ties with any major clans, would be a coup to them.

"I'm afraid I may not be able to maintain professional neutrality towards the subject," Itachi continued.

The old hokage did not quite sighed, "I see," and he did see, Noriko had physically and verbally threatened little Sasuke. The one thing Uchiha Itachi still actively cares about in his life. There is no way Sarutobi could force Itachi to favour the village's pet project over his own little brother, not when it had already forced him to choose between his clan and the good of the village as a whole.

"Very well, you are hereby excused from your current post, Anbu Weasel," Sandaime stated formally, "You may resume your usual duties henceforth," he could not risk pushing Itachi too much, not if he wants the boy to remain loyal to him.

There were no words of thanks, Anbu Weasel gave a short nod and vanished with a quiet puff of smoke. When all traces of the smoke disappeared, Sarutobi leaned back on his chair and pinched the bridge of his nose. Now all he had to do is to wait for Fugaku to arrive and this day would be completed.

As though drawn by his thoughts, Uchiha Fugaku chose that moment to burst through the door.

"I demand reparation!" he thundered.

Sarutobi watched as the papers on his table flutter, discreetly waving away the anxious chuunin that had failed to restrain the Head of Uchiha Clan.

"Oh? What seemed to be the problem, Fugaku?" Sarutobi has seniority and rank over the man, there's no need for him to address him as 'sama'.

"Your pet jinchuuriki has crossed one line too many," he sneered, "the murder of a chuunin teacher, attempted murder of a fellow student and a child to begin with,"

Sarutobi soothed the fluttering papers on his table, "Those are very serious allegations, Uchiha-san,"

"And there are witnesses to both incidents, I assure you," he said almost gleefully, "teachers and students alike, as well as the anbu assigned to watch her," Fugaku is clearly on a roll here.

"That's very thorough of you, Uchiha-san," the Sandaime leaned back in his chair, "Unfortunately, for your first allegation is not quite correct. While Noriko did killed a man, she had also rendered a service to Konoha,"

"By murdering a chuunin teacher?"

"By dispatching a traitor," Sarutobi leaned forward, "Ibiki is, of course, naturally upset that she had killed the man instead of immobilizing him. He had been eager for a test subject for some of his newly developed… techniques,"

"And how did the matter of this man's loyalties conveniently come into question once he's dead?" Fugaku demanded.

"The Yamanaka clan have made great strides in probing the mindscape of the dead," he paused, "as you know, of course, since your last two cases were solved through evidence gained from the Yamanaka mind arts,"

"Of course," he sneered, "Nevertheless, none of your fine words for the jinchuuriki explains her violent assault on Sasuke's person. Surely, you do not intend to explain this act as a 'service to Konoha' when it is in fact an act of malice?" he demanded.

Sarutobi did not seem to be disturbed by Fugaku's temper. He calmly picked up his pipe, and placed it, unlit to his lips, "Tell me, Fugaku, what do you think of Uzumaki Noriko?"

"The jinchuuriki is powerful and unstable, a volatile combination,"

"Do you think she is capable of killing?"

Fugaku looked at him as though he had lost his mind, "She already has one known kill,"

"Do you remember your first kill, Fugaku?"

"Why are we discussing this now?"

"There is often a misconception among young genins and academy students. The first kill is not actually the hardest for most ninja. Often, it is an automatic defence mechanism trained into them through drills and practices," he placed one hand loosely on the table, "what most new recruits have trouble with is _assassination_, to knowingly kill a target in the name of duty and money,"

"This conversation is getting ridiculous," Fugaku exclaimed.

"Very well, we shall cut this short then. Answer one question for me, Fugaku," Sandaime placed his pipe on the its placeholder and looked Fugaku in the eye, "Do you believe Noriko is capable of deliberate kill?"

"The jinchuuriki? Of course,"

"Then tell me honestly, do you really believe that Sasuke-kun, skilled as he is, would have been able to survive the encounter with Noriko had she had intended to kill?"

Fugaku went white.

Sarutobi allowed the idea that his son really could have died to finally sink in.

The man had entered his office with clear intention to insult and discredit the hokage. Never did the thought that Sasuke being alive now had been due to some freaky quirk of Noriko's temper enter his mind. In fact, knowing Noriko's hatred and jealousy against little Sasuke-kun, Sarutobi had been both relieved and bewildered when told of Sasuke's survival. Frightened and shaken, naturally, but alive nevertheless.

"Allow me to understand the situation, hokage-sama," Fugaku ground out tightly, "My son had just been threatened by your pet jinchuuriki and here you are, telling me to be _grateful_ that he survived with his life intact?"

"To survive in the shinobi world, one must learn one's own strength as well as the strength of one's enemy." Sarutobi quoted, "Tell me, who was the one to initiate the fight?"

Fugaku spluttered, "This has nothing to do with-"

"It has everything to do with it," Sarutobi did not raise his voice, but there is a distinctive chill in the room, "your son went against the orders of his superior, the proctor of the fight and knowingly attack another academy student with full intention to cause hurt,"

"That does not excuse any of that creature's behaviour!"

"Doesn't it? Your son, Sasuke-kun, I must say is either incredibly courageous, or extremely foolish to take on a student whose reputation as a chuunin killer precedes her. Really, Fugaku, your son's judgment… I hope it does not reflect on the rest of the Uchiha,"

It is underhanded and wrong and would probably create bad repercussions on little Sasuke-kun, but Sarutobi find it hard to think well of the small _child_ reputed to be one of the best in his class for attacking a known threat. Noriko's reaction probably did not help any, but then she had the excuse of being half crazy while Sasuke's attitude stems from immaturity and an oversize ego on a power trip. The reasoning is most likely to be faulty but the Sandaime is a human being too, capable of making errors in judgement.

The threat of the Uchiha revolting against the village loomed ever closer and loosing Uchiha Itachi's trust is a large blow. One that could possibly tipped the scale in favour of Fugaku's mad plans. Thus, as the deadline for the imminent attack draws ever closer and Sarutobi could no longer put off his decision soon. Something had to be done about the potential Uchiha revolt. Right now, with their inside man's trust shaken due to Noriko's threat against Sasuke, Sarutobi had no way of knowing if Uchiha Itachi could be trusted to do what it takes anymore. If anything were to happen, Sarutobi preferred for it to happen while the intel is still relatively fresh.

"So, is this how the village view the Uchiha clan?" Fugaku's voice is tight with anger, "This is how the Senju plans to reduce our power? Cowing us with threats against our children?"

"Tread carefully, Fugaku," Sandaime said softly, "do not believe that the walls of your compound will hide plans of conspiracy within the village,"

Fugaku's face hardened, "Threats from the hokage now?"

"Do you even know who the man ruling behind the Mizukage is?"

Fugaku's countenance did not change, but Sarutobi is not the hokage for nothing. He noted the way the man stilled, face just a little too much on the side of expressionless for real.

To hide his unease, Fugaku said in an incredulous voice, "And why, are we speaking of the Mizukage now?"

"Why indeed,"

For a moment, nothing was said as they stared at each other. Each looking for an exploitable weakness. From what Sarutobi had gathered, through Noriko and Jiraiya's information, there's a possibility that the Uchiha had sought the Mizukage's aid in the alleged coup. That the Mizukage is now being controlled by an unknown Uchiha is very... disturbing. It would be to the village's best interest if Fugaku were to distrust his potential backup. Sarutobi laid his pipe down and leaned forward.

"I know of your plans, Fugaku. And I know that what you really want is certain rights you thought you were cheated on-"

"We _have_ been cheated on!" Fugaku thundered, "The Uchiha had been marginalised and pushed aside"

"How?" Sarutobi demanded, "Tell me how exactly and we shall right this wrong immediately!"

"This village has discriminated against us, we have no rights, given no respect-"

"I see, so the police force is manned by people from all clans but the Uchiha, is that it?" said Sarutobi mildly, "your people are unable to walk the streets without fear, and your children preyed by angry mobs?" What he would really like to do is punch the man in his face, or shake him until the delusions fell out of his head.

Predictably, Fugaku turned crimson, whether with anger or embarrassment Sarutobi could not be sure.

"A civilian's position for a clan of shinobi is nothing-"

"Ah, so you are angry at the village for barring all Uchiha against joining the ninja force," Sarutobi said lightly, which is a ridiculous theory since there are at least ten Uchiha children at the academy right now. With fifteen genin, six chuunins and five jounins on active duty, Uchiha Mikoto included. He nodded to himself seriously, "a problem which shall be remedied immediately,"

"If you are determine to ridicule our position," Fugaku ground out, "I have nothing to more to speak with you,"

"Of course," Sarutobi nodded back sympathetically, "You poor discriminated Uchiha did not even have a seat at the council. How mean of us," he continued, "for letting the senju clan hog all the important positions."

This time, even Fugaku's ears went red. The Uchiha actually commands two seats within the council of advisors, one on the military position and the other as the status of a civilian. In fact, although there is a technical seat for the senju, with Tsunade prowling the five countries, gambling and getting drunk outside of Konoha, that seat had stood empty for more than three years now. Sarutobi watched as Fugaku seethed, amusement chasing worry.

Will Fugaku lose his temper here? For Noriko, being the ward of Hatake 'Sharingan' Kakashi, to verbally and physically threatening the younger son of the Uchiha Clan Head, something is bound to give. If Fugaku were to lose his temper in the Hokage's office and launch an attack, Sarutobi will have every reason to have him arrested and be interrogated by Yamanaka mindwalkers.

If he were to verbally assault the hokage, he could be reprimanded and be forced to pay reparations. Actions which would subsequently increase the rift between the Uchiha and the village.

So be it.

"Do not think," Fugaku ground out, "that we do not know why the Uchiha had been watched. You suspect us for the involvement of the Kyuubi incident!" He hissed.

Sarutobi stroked his beard, "that is indeed an unfortunate thing. Well, it was an unavoidable theory…"

"How so," snapped Fugaku.

"The eyes of the kyuubi showed traces of Sharingan control." Sarutobi said evenly. Time to show some cards and let Fugaku know why they are being watched, "a very strange and suspicious phenomenon, would you not agree?"

"Impossible," he breathed, "not possible, the Kyuubi is a monster, there is no way to subdue it, not even with-" he stopped himself.

Sarutobi kept his silence, but it is clear that Fugaku have now discerned why his clan is under watch. Time ticked by but still Uchiha Fugaku did not say anything. With tight lips, he turned and stormed out of the office. The Sandaime let him go. There is little purpose to continue with the discussion after all that.

Sarutobi settled in his chair, absently puffing smoke rings. It is not normal for him to flaunt his power or taunt a person's weakness. If the massacre is to happen in the future, he could no longer count on Uchiha Itachi as suggested by Danzo. Noriko had compromised their foil against whatever plans they could have made with the Uchiha Anbu. Fugaku had to know, up front, that he the hokage knew of his plans. Fugaku is a proud man, and it is this pride that had caused him to imagine all sorts of slight against Uchiha power. What Sarutobi had done is remind the clan leader all that he could lose in pursuit of an uncertain future.

The Uchiha had been given fair warning.

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When Mikoto was younger, she had a best friend.

She was a girl who picked fights with boys and won. A girl who had taken one looked at Mikoto and had decided that she had found her best friend forever. The girl grew up to be a fiery young woman with hair to match.

Kushina was everything Mikoto was not. Funny, bright, cheerful and… come to think of it, her supposed daughter, Uzumaki Noriko, did not seemed to possess any of the above character traits (hence the 'supposed'). When news of Uzumaki Noriko attacking her son reached her, Mikoto's first reaction was disbelief. Her son and that child were in different classes and should have no contact with each other. Furthermore, Sasuke would know better than to try and challenge a known danger.

Or did he?

Regardless of what virtues she might imagine her son to have, Mikoto could hardly doubt his heritage or personality. Sasuke is a child and, as such, could be easily influenced by the casual trash talk among unhappy chuunins or disgruntled drunks. While those bearing the Uchiha name pride themselves as the pillar of Konoha society, there exist a set of people that most families are ashamed to claim. The abusers, the drunks and the bigoted are universal problems that all families shared, regardless of their social standing. They are also the ones with time on their hands and loose tongues that wagged more than fishmongers' wives.

Sasuke is young and a second child, thus making him vulnerable to adults who gave such children the time of the day. Living in the shadow of his brother is hard and with no other young Uchiha about, the boy probably spends too much time with local story tellers steeped in the mires of the Uchiha Legends.

Naturally, among the stories told is the Hatake Blight that stole the eye of one of their more promising young legends. How dare an outsider bear the pinwheel eye so blatantly when there are those born to the Uchiha name that could barely even mould chakra? (These people conveniently forgot how they had despised the young child for his cheerful and prideless ways). Mikoto cursed herself for leaving Sasuke to their stories, what could they have been filling his head with?

When Sasuke was brought to her, Mikoto could only hold the shaking child tightly in her arms. What comfort could she give? That Cursed Child is the pride of the village, the weapon to be honed against their enemies. Already there are whispers that she will surpass Itachi, Kakashi and perhaps, even the Yondaime himself.

If she had been born during the warring times, that child would have been on missions already, working her way up to be battle shinobi. For, there is no way they would waste kunoichi arts on such a powerful weapon. Her talents are those that will get her sent to the front lines for combat purposes and power had a way of speaking for itself. Mikoto is the pride of the Uchiha in that she had activated her Sharingan at an early age and had made all the way to jounin status. The reward for her power is marriage to the then heir, Uchiha Fugaku, and the honour of being the mother of the genius child Uchiha Itachi.

The Cursed Child is bound to attract attention from all walks of life. A politically vulnerable child with only Kakashi of the dying Hatake clan to back her is a tempting target for ambitious clans vying for more power. Lesser clans with young sons imagine the prestige and power she could bring to their family. Wealth too, as the adopted heir of Hatake Kakashi, she stands to inherit all of the Hatake assets. Land, weapons, money, a clan house and let's not forget the hundreds of jutsu the man had accumulated through his years as an elite member of the Leaf village.

Older ninja clans are more interested in what genetic contribution she could give to their future generations. Her value exceeds more than just a power house jinchuuriki. Uzumaki Noriko has the potential to be politically powerful, rich and well connected with Utatane and the Hokage taking a personal interest in her. As far as they are concern, material wealth and Hatake's thousand jutsu are merely icing on the cake.

The problem lies in her mental instability.

None of the lesser clans had dared to negotiate for her hand yet for fear of whatever backlash she might bring into the family. Konoha is still prosperous enough, strong enough, and the girl young enough for them to imagine that they still have time to draft a negotiation. In truth, they feared her as much as they admired her power. Whispered stories about her mystical fire and ruthless nature crept along the grapevine. Also, young Hatake Kakashi might still get into his head to want a biological heir for his clan and that diminishes her value in their eyes.

Elders from the Uchiha and Hyuuga clan have more subtle plans than just outright marriage contracts. It is a proven fact that genin teammates form strong bonds with each other as lifelong friends, sometimes eventually as marriage partners. Thus, even as Noriko attended her classes as an academy student, deals are being made, strings pulled and political muscles flexed in order to gain a foothold into her world. That a nameless pink haired civilian is now her 'best friends' is immaterial. What concerned them most is her growing friendship to the Hyuuga heiress. Hyuuga Hiashi had been a little smug lately hadn't he? Look how he fawns over the girl now that she had gained such an important friend.

Nevertheless, there are those who sneered at this farce of a 'friendship'. A Hyuuga sheep trailing after the Cursed Child will not form lasting bonds. Some might even call the Hyuuga child pitiful for trailing after the Cursed Child like a puppy waiting to be fed. What are the feeble friendships of childhood against future bonds built in the face of danger, trust and life threatening situations one will face as a genin cell?

Also, the one who will be her jounin-sensei should, in theory, have the most say in moulding her beliefs and values, a prime and coveted role indeed. Her genin teammates will rise with her in power or die in the process. Plans and counter plans are already brewing in the background for this. Strategies made and discarded, most genin teams break up after a while and sometimes, for those true geniuses whose teammate could not keep up will leave the teams and be place into older, more experience teams to balanced out her power and genius. Sometimes, teams and jounin-senseis do not get along. Sometimes, having someone closer in age, closer in mentality could shift the balance of regard, and therefore power, to certain sides.

As they plotted and planned, they could not have known or even guessed that Noriko would have Naruto's more than thirty years worth of political infighting and planning in his belt. They could not have even considered the possibility that the child would not be susceptible to one of their many plans for the future.

Thus, as Mikoto cradled Sasuke in her arms and crooned nonsense into his ear, she became one of the many plotters and planners. The reason for her guile is simple. For Sasuke's survival. In her ignorance, she plotted moves and counter moves within her limited circle of influence.

As the heir, Itachi will be promised the most capable Uchiha female. Preferably one who has already awakens her Sharingan, just like Mikoto. It would be Sasuke's duty to charm the most promising female specimen outside of the Uchiha clan to merge their genes together and strengthen the Uchiha clan as a whole. For the moment, the most promising specimen is now under the scrutiny of the other clans. However, Mikoto will prevail. She will do whatever it takes to have the creature bow to Sasuke's influence.

Whatever it takes.

Thus, she devises a subtle plan of revenge.

That child would rue the day she had threatened Mikoto's baby.

**Author's note:**

**Yeah, um, no reason why this is late. Well, it could be writer's block or just simply not enough time to sit down and think the plot through. Hope you enjoyed it though, cheers and Happy Christmas!**


	10. Plots and Plans

Being a pre-genin was incredibly boring, muse Naruto one fine day. It had become especially boring ever since Itachi had stopped following Noriko around. The last exciting to happen was the Taijutsu Incident, which was already three months ago and six months since he'd started classes with Sakura. Nothing particularly interesting had happened during those times. Noriko's birthday had come and gone, with Haruno-san had baking a huge birthday cake decorated with henohenomoheji and stuffed it full of peaches for her. There was a joke somewhere in that cake, he was sure of it.

Hinata had been invited, of course, as well as the rest of the girls from Noriko's class, not that Naruto had actually expected anyone to come. It was the day of the Kyuubi Festival after all and most people would rather be out in their yukata to gush over painted lanterns, paper flowers and cheap glittery jewellery than to attend a small girl's party. Kakashi had outfitted Noriko in a bright yellow yukata with pink patterns all over, there were hidden pockets in the sleeves, sparkling senbon hair sticks and a sakura patterned mask to match. She had some suspicions about the origin of that yukata, that old bag of bones Utatane had appeared at her 'birthday party' too and had brought a camera with her. All too ready to pinch Noriko's cheeks and cooing about how cute Noriko looks in the festival yukata. It was all rather creepy actually. He came this close to stabbing someone with the hair sticks.

Regardless, there was Sakura's dad's cake. Sakura herself gave Noriko a matching headband and mask set that she had painstakingly stitched together all by herself. Hinata gave Noriko a book on pressing flowers. It was interesting enough, Naruto thought, especially when he got his 'girl friends' to send letters to each other coded in pressed dried flowers, potpourri and the occasional scented paper. Kakashi was mildly impressed by their secret messages, it certainly beats passing notes via kunai in classes.

Ino was invited too, as were a number of other small girls, but she was the only one to turn up, armed with a small potted plant which she handed to Noriko with much ceremony. Naruto suspected Inoichi, after some prompting from Nara Shikaku, for putting up his daughter into establishing a connection with Noriko. A junior infiltration exercise so to speak. The old hag that hung out with the old man was there with her camera. Oh, and there's doctor Minami scowling at everything and Iruka-sensei making sure to keep at least two people between himself and Kakashi. The party had been prepared with at least fifteen kids in mind, possibly, judging from the amount of food on the table. It was too bad the classes weren't co-ed yet. He would have liked to invite Choji and Shikamaru, and Kiba would have been great for a laugh.

In any case, it had been fun though a little heavy on the female side. He was able to utilize Kakashi's disappearing food trick much to everyone's amusement and Utatane's disapproval. Noriko's eight years old that day. It had been more than a year (two years?) since the Major Incident. It turned out that a lot of time had passed during his incarceration underground, twice. Apparently that was more than enough time for shopkeepers to forget what Noriko had looked like and did not treated her much differently than other patrons. Her new reputation as a badass killer and a major genius child also had people, ninja and non-ninja alike, looked at him with a different kind of troubled eyes. They saw him now as a threat, an opportunity and a challenge. And really, he didn't need that kind of eyes on him all the time. The attention itself brought all kinds of trouble on its own, such as speculations on his friends which he could do without. People looking for power, political and otherwise, in the hands of the next 'prodigy' were always a pain to deal with.

Regardless, Naruto was a practical person. He reasoned that there was really nothing he could do about all the silly hype and attention, so there was no reason for him to lose sleep over it. Therefore, Naruto tried to act normal, for his friend's sake. Go to school, hang out with Hinata and Sakura, play with the thrice damned fox which had somehow grown on him and being generally polite to the people around him. The last one was made easier by Noriko's new reputation. It's much easier being polite to people who work hard to please you (heh) and doing their personal best not to annoy you into killing them. It helped that Naruto had been similarly treated in his past life as 'The Rokudaime' and responded with the usual graciousness.

In the classroom, Naruto sat near the windows, Sakura on one side, Hinata lurking behind them with Suzume-sensei droning on and on about something or other. Operation to get Itachi off his back had worked almost too well, Naruto was reasonably sure that the Anbu Weasel now totally hates Noriko's guts, along with the majority number of persons with last name Uchiha. Not that he cared. Itachi's sobs story aside, it was his stupid headedness that had caused Sasuke to go all crazy ass and anti-Konoha like that.

… … …

God, class was really boring.

The bell rang for break. The sound barely twitched his interest. Being with Sakura and Hinata was fun and all that but Naruto was NOT a girl, and more importantly, NOT an eight year old. No offence to his current age friends but if he had to speculate more about doll's clothing and games and whatever the hell kids those age do, he'd probably go kyuubi on something and kill someone.

"Pssst," Hinata hissed, "He's there again,"

Not to mention that extra complication he had not anticipated but in hindsight should have seen a mile away.

"I see him," Sakura hissed back, "Eww, he's not coming closer is he?"

Naruto smiled grimly, he should have known, really, how Uchiha Sasuke have this thing for people who had beaten him up. First, he took everything Itachi said as gospel truth after 'That Man' had pretty much massacred the entire clan. When Orochimaru had given him a cursed hickey that time in the Forest of Death and got his lackeys to beat him up, the fool had reacted by trashing up friends he had grown up with and abandoning them to go after the murderous paedophile. As for Uchiha Madara, also known in certain parties as Tobi, when the giant idiot found out the man had been party to the Uchiha Massacre thing, the teme had then made himself the personal attack dog of that lunatic. And, well, the only time he really did acknowledged Sakura was after she had picked up a tree and walloped him with it.

So yeah, following crazy Uchiha Sasuke logic, the eight year old boy was now stalking the girl who had beaten him up in a public fight and threatened to do him in the next time. All pretty normal day to day happenings in Uchiha world.

"He's coming over," Hinata flinched.

"D-don't worry," Sakura had a small canister in her hand, "i-if he comes closer, I'll spray him with this."

"Give me that!" Hinata actually lunged for the canister, "I don't want to get cooties,"

Oh, and did he mentioned?

Naruto had, utilizing his awesome and influential presence, convinced all the girls in the playground that Uchiha Sasuke somehow carried the dreaded cooties plague. Girls now hissed and flinched at his presence. The only cooties deterrent known to man (and girls) was lemon juice and the most effective spot to target for are the eyes.

"Fight me," the diminutive Uchiha demanded.

Noriko sniffed, "Do I know you?" several busybodies tittered nervously in the sidelines. The chuunin minders stood alert, but a little far in the sidelines, Noriko observed. They would not be able to stop Noriko if she suddenly decided to lop off the idiot's head.

Sakura made a rude face at the Uchiha boy. Noriko was the best person in the world and she was usually kind to most people, even to that weird fish eye boy who seemed a bit afraid of her. So if she thinks that this boy was bad news, Sakura would support her all the way. Indeed, most of their friends seemed to be a bit afraid of Noriko. Which was a totally silly thing in Sakura's opinion because Noriko was like the nicest person in the whole world, except to cooties carrier, because since they were like, sub-human and had very bad manners.

"I am Uchiha Sasuke," said the cooties carrier, "you will fight me!"

Noriko gave the pre-genin a contemptuous look, "I don't associate with crazies, let's go Sakura, Hinata"

Sakura gave the boy a last poisonous glare. What a terrible attitude. There must be something wrong with this person, she decided. Only an idiot would openly challenge Noriko like this. No one challenges Noriko unless they were stupid or super awesome. And Sakura could tell that the Uchiha boy was definitely not awesome material. It was quite possible that the cooties had damaged his brain processes. Sakura reminded herself again to keep her distance in case the incredibly contagious cooties jumped into her brain and turned_ her_ into an idiot.

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Hatake Kakashi was a ninja of great skill and re-known and his talents were always in demand. In demand for what, Naruto could not have said for sure, but the man was always absent. Whenever the man was in the village, he was usually found recuperating at the hospital under the watchful eye of the medical doctors. It did not bother Naruto to be left alone in the large Hatake mansion. The walled in house was made to keep others out, and as such, it did little to keep Naruto in.

Living with Hatake Kakashi was not a hard thing to do. The man was not properly trained in social niceties and was therefore unaware how much attention should be given to a child. Noriko was similarly dysfunctional enough in the eyes of Konoha's society to not attract attention whenever she ventured out alone with a shopping bag bigger than herself to stock up food. There had been inquiries made, of course, on the actual care and attention Kakashi should have showered upon the prodigy, but these were brief and short lived.

Once, some official lady had turned up at the Hatake house determined to prove that Noriko was suffering from malnourishment and debilitating loneliness and should be fostered with 'nice' and 'normal' family. Kakashi was five days past the deadline he was suppose to return and the woman wanted Noriko to stay with the incredibly nice Lee family who had five other foster children with them. Naruto had at first been amused, then later irritated by the woman. Needless to say his retaliation had been anything but mature, but really, the stupid woman had it coming. It did not hurt at all when he found out she was an Uchiha civilian working for the domesticate branch of the police force.

Huhuhuhu…

Kakashi was incredibly apologetic to the woman, in that passive aggressive way of his when he found out. There had been some threats thrown around, all of which ended when Naruto made time to send clones to follow nosy, 'well meaning' persons and having her clones looking blankly at them through their windows and doing absolutely nothing. It was hilarious how freaked out they became. Even the Lee family were not spared. That little stunt put an end to civilians trying to interfere with Noriko's unconventional life for good.

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That morning found Naruto craving something more than steamed vegetables or the wizened looking apples on the counter. So he put on Noriko's scarf, hoisted a backpack upon her small shoulders and made for the morning markets. He had not made any plans with either Sakura or Hinata, choosing to spend the day alone. The damned fox had been released to the woods to do whatever foxes do whenever they were not harassing other people's hair.

The morning breeze felt fresh and cool against Noriko's skin.

The ever present ninja shadow detached from the shingles of the Hatake house to fleet overhead. He vaguely wondered who the new anbu could be. The shadow moved differently from Itachi. Less flowing and more fleetish. Naruto did not bothered to acknowledge the shadow, he had had enough experience with bodyguards as a hokage to know them as necessary evil. Regardless, it had always tickled Naruto to know that he could kick all of his so called bodyguards' asses if he wanted to. Being immune to most poisons also made it that much more difficult to be killed.

For Naruto, being left alone was something matter of fact. It was enough that Kakashi always took pains to inform Noriko when he would be absent. Naruto had pretty much raised himself when he was at this age the first time round. Doing so again had posed no trouble at all. Especially since the people at the market place prove especially effusive and helpful whenever Noriko went grocery shopping, he did not even have to bring money along. Just visit the stalls that Kakashi usually went to and put everything on the bill. Kakashi kept tabs at two meat stalls and three vegetable stalls that included fruits as part of their ware. Not that Naruto had to go shopping all the time, there is only so much one person could eat after all.

It occurred to Naruto to try and act normal for the sake of everybody's peace of mind. 'Act' being the important word here. What was normal for Naruto at this age was ramen with Iruka-sensei, hanging out with some of the rookie nine, being teased and harassed by Kiba and Ino, getting his ass handed to him in Shoji with Shikamaru.

What was normal for Noriko again?

Killing chuunin traitors?

Hmm…

Terrorizing uppity academy students?

Yeah… not unless he wanted more parents after his ass. Naruto had spotted that woman with Sasuke's face poking her nose around Noriko, pretending to shop and taking paths way out of her normal route for the scenery. It was pretty creepy considering how many women with Sasuke's face had been sent by Kabuto to beat him up in some loopy sense of revenge. Naruto cast a wary eye at the woman with the Uchiwa fan on her back two stalls away, taking inordinately long time choosing tomatoes, trying to convince himself that he was being crazy paranoid.

He waved a thank you to the fruit sellers and moved to a different stall. The woman finally paid for her wares and moved to a stall _right next to him_. So much for just being paranoid. With a sigh, Naruto ignored the woman. One can't just blow them all away with a well place Rasengan after all. A bitter lesson he had learned long ago sitting at that one political meeting with the Daimyo and the many snooty courtiers of Fire Country.

Perhaps he could adopt more random wild foxes?

Haha, funnee, no way.

Hang out with Sakura?

Naruto pondered on the wisdom of the last thought, before shaking his head. As nice as being able to hang out with Sakura, or Hinata and Sakura together, the thought of having to do girl things together would probably break whatever leftover sanity he might have had in his head. So, in the interest of the general safety of Konoha, no hanging out with girl friends.

Still, Naruto was bored. And a bored Naruto was never a good thing as Iruka-sensei might have told the general populace. He could train, of course, but that would bring too many spectators to any training grounds Noriko might go. Besides, Academy students were not actually allowed at training grounds anyway. Not officially. That he was still being followed around by an anbu was not really big deal. The watch business was a tedious and boring job after all, one that Naruto had always used to punish his own errant ninjas. The tedium of watching a boring individual day in and day out doing nothing of interest will eventually cause the watcher to become careless and inattentive.

Contrastingly, Naruto was always very thoughtful to provide his anbu watchers with many, many kinds of interesting things to report. There was this one time when he persuaded Sakura and Hinata to build an edible version of the hokage tower using doughnuts, chocolate sprinkles and sticky icing. The result was brought to the school to be devoured by greedy classmates. Other times, he would sit on the edge of the lake and talked to the stones there, pretending to have a grave conversation with the unanimated things, shushing the fox when it tried to convince him to play. He would sometimes scatter kage bunshin about, leading the watchers down false trails and popping up in the most unexpected places doing nothing in particular.

The prankster in Naruto delighted in all these weird 'harmless' activity. Danzo's Root shadows were probably driven half mad by these meaningless excursions, unable to make sense or find a pattern in Noriko's movements. They were probably convinced Noriko was Up To Something and would push more resources into investigating her movements, thereby reducing Root's efficiency in other plots. Plots that involved Orochimaru and the eventual creation of Pein for example, as well as all the random Sharingan and Tobi related complications.

Speaking of random Sharingan related complications, Naruto had finally taken the time to put some serious thinking into the Uchiha business. While it was fun to antagonize the traitor brothers and the rest of the Uchiha in general, the resultant evil eye, Naruto had decided pragmatically, was probably not worth it in the long run. For Konoha to be strong, she would need all her fighters to be strong. The loss of the Uchiha clan had taken a lot of firepower, literally, out of the village. The loss of moral was pretty bad too.

Maybe. Whatever.

Naruto knew he had to think like a kage again and not as a brat that goes around threatening every stupid people he encountered. Cause the world was made up of all kinds of people, even the nuts and the squashes. The Uchiha had been destroyed because they became a threat to the village. It became a threat to the village because Uchiha Fugaku-baka had taken into his stupid head to assassinate the Kage of his own village. Worst still, the man had thought he could get away with it. A pretty stupid thing to do considering that the elders and the hokage was already suspicious of the whole clan in general and that extra monitoring had been placed upon all of their correspondents and unassigned 'trips' on behalf of the clan and suspicious private gatherings at private temples.

So, Naruto had be mature and set aside his hatred and totally reasonable disgust against the Uchiha in general. For the moment anyway, he's sure that some Uchiha or other would probably try to rebel and turned traitor because that's how they were wired. Perhaps Konoha would allow Noriko to burn the person slowly from inside out, or stuck the traitor to the side of a mountain and let the rain and sun do his job for him. Noriko would enjoy burning people. Perhaps he could indulge her every now and then. There will always be traitors to kill.

Naruto sighed to himself, so no Uchiha baiting. He would have to think of something else to occupy his time. Vaguely he wondered how he had talked himself out of making trouble for the Uchiha. Well, maybe he won't give them actual 'trouble' trouble, but surely a teeny weeny totally tiny prank wouldn't be too bad? Kakashi was not scheduled to be back for another two weeks, Naruto would probably expire from boredom by then.

He could… do something weird yet harmless and make the Anbu, a Root recruit, bring interesting reports back to Danzo. Hmm… wait, that thought seemed strangely familiar. Had he just thought himself into a loop? Ah, well, it was still worth a second thought. It had been five days since Naruto had dedicated three hours arranging river rocks into interesting but totally meaningless patterns at training ground 23. He was still pondering over this dilemma when an opportunity for fun presented itself most opportunely.

Hehehe.

Ohohoho.

With gathering cheer, Naruto bounced and skipped forward in an incredible burst of speed.

"Mi-Na-Mi-Sen-Seiiiiiiii!" Noriko squealed behind her scarf, one eye inverted into a curve, arms wide open to execute The Glomp, much to the horror of the people around them.

Dr. Minami's head stuck up suspiciously from where he had been perusing some cakes. The good doctor had a serious sweet tooth as Naruto had found out from Noriko's last birthday.

"Kyaa~" Noriko leapt up, and smacked face first into a very creamy cake, "Obb brbrb!" Noriko dropped to the floor, dripping cream everywhere.

The good doctor picked up his purchase, "She will pay for that one," he gestured to the fallen cardboard circle that had been the base for the smashed cake.

Not to be outdone, Naruto immediately filled Noriko's hands with cream and grabbed Dr. Minami's pants, "Uwaah! Minami-sensei is mean!"

To the shock of the people surrounding them, the good doctor simply put his hand into one of his shopping bags, brought out a fly swatter and swatted the Cursed Child on the head. Smack! Smack!

"If you do not let go this very instant, I shall shove the handle into your remaining eye," he threatened.

Naruto gave the man a watery look. Then, with malicious deliberateness, he rubbed Noriko's face against the doctor's leg, spreading cakey goodness all over the dark material.

It was a good day.

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"Greetings, Hokage-sama," Maito Gai greeted after executing a perfect Dynamic Entry into the hokage tower via the wide windows. It was perfectly acceptable to come in through the windows if you were summoned by the hokage himself.

"Ah, Gai, so good of you to come," the runner that had been despatched to find Gai had only left five minutes ago, "and thank you for your prompt arrival,"

"It is but the power of youth, Hokage-sama," Gai flexed a bicep at the praise.

"Excellent, excellent," he ignored the increasingly incredulous faces of his old teammates, "I shall get to the point then, Gai,"

"If it pleases hokage-sama!"

"It pleases me indeed," said Sarutobi evenly, "How do you feel about becoming a jounin sensei?"

"Hokage-sama," said Gai with utmost graveness, "it would be my honour to assist in fanning the Fires of our Youths,"

"That's very good," Sarutobi said with similar gravity. He ignored Utatane and Mitokado's barely concealed shudders of horror.

"However, I had thought to do so in another year or two," Gai continued unexpectedly, Sarutobi blinked, he would have thought the man would have leapt, literally, at the chance to spread his Fires of Youth right away.

"I see," he said, curious now, "and what are your reasons?"

"There is a student. He will finish his schooling in a few months. The child is strong in his Will of Fire. However, the good and honourable medical staffs had determined that he may never use ninjutsu. I am pleased to report, however, that this does not deter the child in the least as he practices Most Diligently in the Taijutsu Arts. He will become a good shinobi," the light pinged off his teeth.

Understanding dawn on them. If Gai spoke true and the child really was unable to use his chakra, then it made sense that the school would hold him back for another remedial year, possibly even place him among the washbacks of the academy. If the child persisted in his current choice of career, he would probably be ended up as a desk ninja or a teacher of taijutsu for very young children. That was, unless a jounin took an interest in him.

"I believe I know the child, Rock Lee wasn't it?" grunted Mitokado, "An orphan with distant ties to the Lee clan,"

"Mitokado-sama is most well informed," Gai grinned at the man, offering his thumb up for viewing, "The power of Youth burns strongly within you!"

Mitokado's eyebrow twitched.

Sarutobi quickly intervene lest Mitokado decided to show Gai just how powerful his 'Youth' was.

"As the medics indicated that the boy would not be able to use chakra outside his body," he said, "I believe you intend to train the boy in body arts?" stealth was another option, but considering they were speaking to Gai, well…

"Hokage-sama is most insightful," Gai enthused spiritedly, "Lee will be trained in the Arts of Taijutsu and become a genius of hard work, just like me!" he flexed his other bicep. The muscle bulged and danced under his green leotard.

"So, the boy will be graduating soon?" Utatane asked a little desperately, trying to keep her eyes off the undulating muscle. It was making her seasick.

"If he passes his genin exam," Gai said neutrally, his arms now at his sides, much to the relief of his audience. Which Rock Lee would not, as they all know since the ninjutsu portion of the test will take up at least a third of the points. However, washbacks could return to school and gain another year of study and eventually go into the more mundane stream of ninja work. Gate guarding, paper work and finances unless they caught the eye of a jounin willing to train them. Rock Lee was now almost twelve years old. Technically, he should be taking his genin exams at the end of the year and, considering his chances, the academy should be able to release him in the following year after another year's worth of remedial lessons.

It was to Rock Lee's advantage that he already had the attention of a jounin and would not have to actually stay back for another year before graduating.

"While this is all fascinating, I believe that it is time we go back to the main objective," Utatane grunted, Maito Gai's talk of youth always made her feel older and crankier.

"Ah, of course, of course," Sarutobi regarded the Beast of Konoha with grave eyes, "What do you know of Uzumaki Noriko?"

"The ward of my Eternal Rival is a Rare Blossom indeed," he said, "Very hip and modern,"

"What do you think of her?"

"Powerful chakra, dangerous," he said at once, "odd, but kind to her friends,"

Interesting, thought Sarutobi. Gai was a ninja with no real political ties beyond those that he had made for himself. Having Noriko trained by a politically neutral ninja with a strong personality streak would only be good for her. Furthermore, Gai's affinity for 'Hard Work' and 'Friendship' could only be good thing for the increasingly isolated genius.

"We want you to be her jounin-sensei," Sarutobi said, going right to the heart of the matter. It was not a request.

Interestingly, Gai's face and body language… paused, he supposed. Yes, paused was a good word as any to explain the sudden stillness of the taijutsu master. His entire body paused. Gai appear to give the matter very serious consideration, "It would be a pleasure to fan the fires of her youth." He said finally.

"So you agree?"

"Hokage-sama, I most respectfully request to have Lee-kun in my team also. His fire is strong, but even the Most Valiant of Flames will gutter out without proper care,"

It was an unexpected request. While they now knew that Gai had his eye on the boy, they had not expected him to actually ask for the boy to be put into his genin team right away. That rather put a loop into their plans as they had wanted to have a Hyuuga and an Uchiha in Gai's team in order to balance out the power play. They had expected Gai to jump at the chance to train his rival's 'ward', they did not expect him to have an opinion in the matter.

This complicated matters quite a bit.

Sarutobi considered. Having a ninjutsu cripple in a team with Noriko's brand of chakra genius could be a disaster waiting to happen. Rock Lee's inability to utilize chakra outside of his body could seriously counter balance Noriko's heavy ninjutsu use. Furthermore, most genius children have no patience with those less brilliant then themselves.

Most genius children but Noriko, Sarutobi suddenly remembered. While Sakura and Hinata were bright enough, their abilities was a far cry from Noriko's brand of genius. However, for all her vaunted brilliance, Noriko was, as Gai had said, kind to her friends. Friends, Sarutobi thought suddenly, who were neither academically nor physically brilliant as herself. Perhaps, they ought to encourage this aspect of her personality. Having Rock Lee, an obvious 'hindrance' to the team might actually encourage this character trait.

He did not know what Lee might bring into the team equation, but Gai seemed insistent on having him. Lee had no political ties beyond those of his distant relatives who had fostered him when his parents died five years ago. His most obvious character trait was a 'to die' attitude towards becoming a ninja of Konoha. He did not even have Sakura's obvious academic brilliance, or a bloodline trait to back him up. The only real thing he had going on for him was Gai's dubious recommendation.

The possibility of a half trained ninja dying in a D rank was small especially with a jounin-sensei in charge, but it was understood that a team with Noriko's kind of power would eventually be given tasks that would bring them into close contact with battle. They could not afford to have her hang around chasing cats and delivering groceries for long. Her teammates would be expected to advance with her or be lost to battle. Perhaps, Sarutobi considered, as experiment goes, losing a half crippled ninja to battle would be no great disadvantage to Konoha. If Lee managed to survive and became a halfway decent ninja, he could even be promoted into chuunin level, eventually.

Yes, he thought, liking the idea more and more. Having two politically neutral members in Noriko's first team would be advantageous in the long run. Now he just has to decide on the final teammate. They could not put an Uchiha or a Hyuuga in without being seen as bias against the other. Perhaps an Aburame? But, there were none within that age bracket…

"Very well, a formal graduation exam will be held in three months time." they will decide on the third genin later, "Any academy student, regardless of their age or clan affiliation may participate. Those who pass this exam or catch the eye of a jounin sensei willing to train them will gain an automatic promotion to genin level," said Sarutobi.

"Yosh!" Gai jerked into a salute, "Lee-kun shall be ready for the exam. If he fails I shall run up and down the Hokage Mountain fifty times. On my hands!" with this final declaration, Gai threw himself out the window to inform Lee about this tremendous news.

"I do hope you know what you're doing," Mitokado grumbled, "all this talk about youth just isn't normal,"

"Normal is overrated anyway; hopefully, Gai's enthusiasm will rub off Noriko a little. She had been a little standoffish lately, and I believe Gai will have a good influence on her. Even Kakashi responds to his bracing presence,"

"That is all and well," Utatane muttered, "however, if I ever catch Noriko-chan running around in green spandex, I shall have your head for this, hokage or not,"

For once, doubt entered Sarutobi's head on the wisdom of letting Gai train Noriko. "Let us hope it does not come to that,"

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Yup, this chapter's finally up. Any thoughts on who might be the third genin? Hehe


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